Exobyte Warriors
by Black Phoenix Risen
Summary: Josh, Ariel, and Devon are all infected with exobytes and given superpowers just as Brainiac invades Earth. In order to defend everything they love, they become some of the first exobyte-based super heroes. But life is going to be tough since Brainiac is still around, new villains are popping up daily, and old villains are taking advantage of the chaos. T for violence and language.
1. Bottled

I do not own any part of the canonized DC Universe except for my own characters.

Chapter 1: Bottled

Josh Alewife was nervous. Scratch that; Josh Alewife was panicking. He was sitting in the lobby of the legendary Daily Planet building in Metropolis for a job interview with the editor himself; Perry White.

Apparently, White had seen Josh's work for his college newspaper. Had it really only been a week since he had gotten the call for an interview request? He wasn't sure. He really couldn't think straight at the moment.

A beautiful woman with black hair was dragging some poor shmuck with thick glasses through the lobby. "Damn it Clark! I told you I wanted that NASA story!" As they reached the door, the man, Clark evidently, passed Josh and gave him a sheepish grin. Josh tried to respond with a smile of his own, but his central nervous system didn't seem to be working at the moment.

The phone on the receptionist's desk rang once before she answered it daintily. Josh gulped audibly as she nodded and put down the phone. "Mr. White will see you now." She said. She smiled reassuringly at Josh as he stood up. His fingers were wrapped so tightly around the handle of his briefcase that his knuckle bones were protruding. He thanked the receptionist as he walked towards the elevator. It was already on the bottom floor and opened as soon as Josh pressed the up button. White's office was on the penultimate floor.

Josh began to breathe in and out slowly as the elevator doors closed a trick his therapist had taught him. Luckily, the elevator was express and it only took a few seconds for the small box to climb 70 stories. The doors opened with a ding.

He took one final breath. "C'mon, man," he whispered to himself, "You can do this. It's just the most important interview of your life, no pressure." With that reassuring pep talk, Josh stepped into the main news room of the Daily Planet.

. . .

Ariel was leaning against the wall of the Daily Planet building. Her thick, black hair hid her face from the passing crowd.

An angry woman passed her with a geeky-looking man in tow. "I specifically told you I wanted the alien story." She raged as they went by. Ariel ignored them just as much as they ignored her.

She checked her watch. 2 PM on the nose. She looked at the door to the Daily Planet building doors, hoping her mother would finally come out. Her shift was supposed to be over at 2, but she usually worked later than that. Unfortunately, the girls from the exclusive Metropolis Preparatory High School always passed by at 2:05 exactly. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a gaggle of tittering, stereotypical teenage girls in blue school uniforms appeared around the corner.

"Well, well, well," giggled Tatyana, the platinum blonde leader of the clique, "If it isn't the attention junkie, waiting for mama as always. How are you doing today? The spotlight too bright for you?" Ariel lowered her head, letting her hair fully engulf her head. One would think that what she had been through would be cause for sympathy, not ridicule, but some people were just downright cruel. And when those people happened to be the captain of the cheerleader squad, then they had the strength of numbers on their side as well.

The girls kept talking, but Ariel ignored them. All she needed to know was that they were there and that they hated her. Finally, the girls shut up, meaning only one thing. Ariel raised her head to see her mother come out of the building and walk towards her with a smile.

"Hi girls," she said brightly, "How was school?"

Tatyana grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, it was the usual. Not as interesting as Ariel's day though. From what she told us, she had a very interesting day."

"Good!" Ariel's mom patted Ariel on the back, "Well, see you girls later!" The girls walked away, giggling in tandem as Ariel's mother led her away. The parking garage was a few blocks away, and Ariel knew her mother would talk the whole way there.

A car passed by and a small ball flew out the open window. It bounced passed Ariel as the car stopped. A young boy poked his head out of the window and looked mournfully at his lost toy. Ariel sighed and pulled away from her mother.

"Ariel? Are you okay?"

Ariel nodded. "I'll be right back." The ball bounced against the Daily Planet building where Ariel caught it with one hand. That was when all hell broke loose.

. . .

Devon coughed into his raggedy sleeve. He was leaning on the Gotham City Courthouse while his father handled things inside. At eight years old, Devon wasn't sure what that meant, but the nice police officer had told him that his father was going to be alright. He just had to wait outside until the trial (whatever that was) ended.

Devon coughed again. He might be coming down with the flu. He did every year; his father couldn't afford the shots and their box wasn't thick enough to protect them from the cold.

Devon sighed and scratched his rash. From somewhere in the city, a church bell rang twice. 2 in the afternoon, the trial was supposed to be over by now. The officer told him it would only take an hour, and that was at noon. Devon suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He quickly pulled away and looked up at his attacker, raising his fists at the ready.

It was the police officer who had reassured him earlier. He held up his hands in defense. "Easy, son, it's just me." Devon relaxed; his father had taught him to trust the police. Even the bad ones were once good people, he always said.

Devon looked around. "Where's my dad?" he asked.

The officer cringed and knelt down to Devon's level, taking off his cap. "Look, kid," he said, scratching his head, "The jury, they found him guilty." Devon didn't really know what that meant and turned his head to the side. "It means your daddy isn't going to be here for a while."

"Can I see him now?"

"I'm really sorry, son, but he's already on his way to…where he's going."

"Where's he going?"

The officer hesitated. "A…nice place where he can be alone for a little while."

Devon sniffled, "He doesn't want me with him?"

The officer sighed. He was really botching this. "No, no, he wants to be with you. But it's not safe for you to be around him right now." Devon started to cry and the officer pulled him in for a hug. "It's alright, kid," he whispered to him, "The Wayne Foundation has a place for kids just like you. It's a nice house, you'll have fun there."

Devon looked up, tears running down his face. His eyes snapped open and he gasped. "What's that?" he asked.

The officer looked up and his jaw dropped. "Oh my God."

. . .

Josh walked into Perry White's office with a confident gait. His face betrayed none of the utter anxiety that he was feeling, a trick he'd picked up from a roommate who majored in theater. His adrenaline level was almost record breaking, but he let none of it show. He had prepared a formal greeting that he hoped would give Mr. White a good first impression of him. But once he stepped in the office, his speech went out the window, almost literally.

Mr. White was staring out the glass panels at the massive, floating craft that was hovering over the building. Josh slowly walked up next to him as the unidentified flying object lowered, until it was only a few meters above the signature globe atop the building. Both men were totally flabbergasted and speechless.

Four blue lines shot down from the craft, engulfing the entire building and the surrounding block in a blue light. Josh stumbled backwards in surprise. He tripped and fell over White's desk. Before he could recover, there was a flash of orange light and everything went black.

. . .

Ariel grabbed the ball just as the force field slammed down behind her. She turned around and cried in surprise. Her mother banged on the force field from the other side and started screaming, but Ariel couldn't hear her. She touched the blue light and recoiled from it. It felt like she was freezing and roasting at the same time. Around her, people were screaming and assaulting the barrier in panic. There was a flash of light and everything suddenly went black.

. . .

The officer shoved Devon away just as a force field erupted around him. The officer was split entirely in two as the wall went straight through him. Devon screamed in terror and ran. He didn't know where he was going, just that he needed to get away from the madness.

His hands felt wet. He looked down to see the red blood of the officer across his chest and arms. Devon looked away from his hands, afraid. There was a flash of light and everything went black.

. . .

Miles above the Earth, Captain Atom, Batman, and Wonder Woman stood in the Watchtower.

"Do you think Luthor was telling the truth?" Asked Wonder Woman. Batman grunted and folded his arms.

"Of course not," said Captain Atom, "The day any Luthor tells the truth is the day that Batman tells us his secret identity."

Batmen glared out the large window before them. "Well, he was right about one thing." Hundreds of Brainiac warships filled the entire atmosphere, with thousands of drones emanating from each. Every hero that could survive in the vacuum of space and even some villains were engaging as many ships as they could, but numbers were not on their side.

Behind them, the teleported activated and Superman emerged in the room. "Sorry, a…friend kept me waiting."

Batman grunted, "Luthor told the truth."

"How do you know?" Wonder Woman asked.

The Martian Manhunter phased through the floor. "The scans are complete." He announced, "There are microscopic particles of Brainiac technology in the air on Earth. I don't know how long they have been there, but from what the Atom, Cyborg, and I can figure out, they do resemble the 'exobytes' that the future Luthor told us about."

Wonder Woman glared at Batman. "I swear someday I'll figure out how you know things before anyone else." The caped crusader said nothing, content to watch the celestial fireworks. Power Girl flew past the window and managed a brief wave before she returned to pummeling a Brainiac Overseer.

Superman sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We need to get Brainiac out before-" an alarm cut him off and a red, holographic screen appeared in front of the window. The screen showed images of various buildings around Gotham and Metropolis, as well as other cities, being bottled. "That," finished Superman. Wonder Woman growled angrily as she saw and image of a police officer in Gotham sacrificing himself to save a little boy from being killed by the bottle. "Soon, he'll start digitizing the contents of those bottles for their data and destroy them, including the people inside them." Superman flew over to a panel in the wall and opened it. "This means war."

Inside was a small, red button. Hesitating, Superman looked back at his fellow heroes. Batman nodded and Superman pushed the button. All across the globe, heroes with any relation to the Justice League were contacted. Alarms rang through Titans Tower on the west coast while the blares from the Hall of Justice could be heard all over Washington. Deep under the sea, Atlantis was told of the arrival of the alien menace while far off in the galaxy, the gods of New Genesis were asked for assistance. On the island of Themyscira, the Amazon Queen Hippolyta received a request of support and in the center of the universe, the Guardians were told of the injustice of the Brainiac invasion.

Superman turned back to the group. "So, what now?"

Batman unfolded his arms and cracked his knuckles. "There will be thousands with new superpowers, maybe millions. If we're going to war, we're going to need an army."

"And we'll get one." Agreed Wonder Woman, "But right now, our main priority is to keep Brainiac's main forces from reaching Earth and to help those trapped within the bottles."

Martian Manhunter nodded. "I'll send all leaguers on the surface to assault the nearest bottle. Maybe they can find a weak spot." With that, he phased through the floor once more.

Batman activated his communicator. "Oracle, see if you can hack any of those Brainiac landing ships. We might be able to contact someone inside to get people out of there."

Miles below, in the clock tower of Gotham City, Oracle nodded. Then, realizing that Batman couldn't see her, replied, "You got it." She began typing away at the supercomputer in front of her, lines of code flying before her eyes, none of them missed.

"Hera help us." Murmured Wonder Woman, preparing to join the fight in the atmosphere herself along with Captain Atom. Superman and Batman went to the main teleportation pads for Metropolis and Gotham respectively and went home to defend their people from the onslaught.

. . .

Deep under the swamps of the Louisiana Biyou, Circe giggled. She was watching a loop of a Gotham police officer being split in two by a Brainiac bottle.

Next to her, Thalia al Ghul rolled her eyes. "You've been watching that for almost an hour." She said, "Can't you think of something better to do? Or at least watch that somewhere else than here?" they were standing in the Command and Control Center, watching global alerts for the tell-tale signs of Brainiac. Circe waved her hand at Talia. The assassin floated three feet in the air and zoomed backwards into a dashboard. "Was that truly necessary?" Talia muttered as she rubbed her shoulder. Circe ignored her and went back to her video. Behind them, Lex Luthor and Metallo teleported in from Metropolis.

"Are you seeing this?" demanded Metallo.

Circe summoned a bag of popcorn with her magic and began to munch absentmindedly. "Yes! Isn't it hilarious?"

Metallo rounded on her. "Hilarious! Are you kidding me?" he looked up and saw the video she was watching. He watched through a few loops before continuing. "Okay, _that_ is funny. But this is the end of the friggin' world!"

"Relax, Metallo," sighed Luthor. He stood next to Talia and watched orange lights ignite all over the holographic globe in the center of the room, signifying the presence of Brainiac.

"Relax?" demanded Metallo, "Relax! Did you not hear the 'end of the world' part? What are you seeing that I'm not?"

Luthor gave a small smile. "Opportunity." He said softly. He looked around and frowned. "Opportunity that I'm surprised to see the Joker isn't taking advantage of."

Circe crumpled up her empty popcorn bag and burned it away. "Oh, he's probably just working an angle from Gotham. You know how hard it is to tear him away from that damn city."

Luther nodded grimly. The last time the Joker had been forced to leave Gotham for more than an hour, he'd thrown a hissy fit that nearly brought down the Hall of Doom. "Nevertheless, we need to prepare." He said, "We need to gather our forces."

Circe looked away from her screen. "Why? To fight Brainiac?"

"No," said Luthor, steepling his fingers together, "Well, yes that. But mostly to take advantage of the chaos. Oh, and we'll need to enlarge the Hall."

Talia glanced over. She more or less ran the Hall of Doom's everyday functions, but she hadn't seen a reason to expand. "Why?" she asked.

"Because," Luthor drew from his pocket a small cylinder. It was filled with spare exobytes, given to him by his future self. "I have a feeling we'll have a lot of new friends on our hands." He glanced up at Metallo. "Tell Calculator to start hacking into Brainiac's systems. I want eyes and ears everywhere, especially on the inside." Metallo nodded and walked off to find the nearest communicator. Luthor pocketed the cylinder once more. This was going to get much more interesting before it was over, and he wanted to be around to enjoy every second of it.


	2. Escape

Same disclaimer as before

Chapter 2: Escape

Josh awoke in a pod. Already, he was hyperventilating. He was incredibly claustrophobic and being in such a tight space was activating his childhood asthma.

The pod was made of black metal except for an orange-tinted window. Outside the pod was a large, futuristic looking room with several other pods.

"Interesting." The voice was monotonous and metallic. Josh jumped in fright and hit his head on the top of the pod. He was now having trouble breathing, his heart was beating so fast that he could feel his ribs cracking, and now he could feel a substantial lump forming on the top of his head. "It appears the specimen is infected with microscopic future technology."

A massive android shaped like a colossal crab passed Josh's pod. He screamed in terror as the droid turned to look at him with mechanical eyes. "My technology." The droid continued on its route. "Exobytes. Signatures of genetic material collected from the Flash. Potential abilities: super speed, enhanced strength, pyrokinesis, and enhanced mental capacity." Josh was too busy screaming to hear most of what the voice said.

. . .

Ariel cried. She had woken up in the same room as Josh in a similar pod. A humanoid robot walked past her, not even sparing a glance. "Another one." The voice caused her to cower lower and continue sobbing. She tried to fold herself into the fetal position, but there wasn't enough room.

She dug her nails into her arm, clawing at her skin. The pain felt like a reset button for her body and she panted as she tried to calm down. "Subject is contaminated with exobytes bearing the genetic material of the Martian Manhunter. Potential abilities: telepathy, tactile telekinesis, gravity desensitization, density shifting, and empathetic healing. Put subject under surveillance to prevent escape." The robot returned and stood in front of her pod.

Ariel had no idea what was going on, but she knew she wanted out of that pod. She gently put her hand against the window and rested her head against the thick, alien material it was made from. God, what she wouldn't give to just go home right then. At that exact moment, a headache the likes of which she had never felt before hit her brain like an out of control freight train. She screamed in pain as she gripped in her skull. Strange voices screamed in her head and her vision went blurry

_God! Get me out of here!_

_ Oh please, please don't hurt me!_

_ Where am I! What is that thing!_

Ariel shrieked and slammed her head against the window. With an echoing crack, the window shattered and large splinters shot into the back of the robot guarding her pod. With that release of energy, Ariel poked felt the voices subside in her mind and she cautiously stepped out of her pod.

She was in a circular room lined with identical pods. All of them held people of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Some of them were awake and were banging on the windows to their pods, desperation clear on their faces. A few robots were walking around the room nonchalantly.

One was a massive, robotic crustacean, which turned its giant head to Ariel as it stepped out of her pod. "Escapee detected," it said, "Recapture and pod, priority alpha." The robot scuttled towards a petrified Ariel as the two or three humanoid robots in the room ran towards her.

_Hang on, kid!_

. . .

Josh felt heat rise up in him. It was a familiar rage that he had been taught to keep down. It was his fear, his anger, his anxiety building up like a pressure cooker. He tried to take deep calming breaths, but only succeeded in fanning the flames.

If a teenage girl had escaped her pod, than a grown man sure as hell could. Josh rested his hand on the window and tensed his muscles. Grunting in effort, he pushed outwards.

His hands went straight through the window. He gasped in surprise as he fell forward and slammed his cheek into the glass. He pulled back slightly and panted in horror. His hands were glowing white-hot, but he felt no heat. Yet they had burned straight through the glass, it was melting and dripping around his sleeves. He withdrew his hands to inside the pod and flexed his fingers experimentally.

"What the hell?" he whispered in terror. Josh looked up and saw the girl who had escaped running in circles around the room, four robots chasing her. Three were human-like, but one was the colossal crab he had seen. He felt the fire in his stomach rise and bile build up in his throat. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, Josh carefully used one finger to trace the outline of the window, melting the glass along the trail. With a kick, Josh shoved the glass away and it shattered on the floor. He stepped out and turned his head as the girl ran by.

She had long black hair, wore a long-sleeve black shirt, and was followed by a gaggle of robots. "Escapee detected," said one, "Contain prisoners, by order of Brainiac." One of the humanoid robots broke off from the group and charged at Josh. He raised his hands in defense as the robot leaped at him and the droid fell through his hands. It had melted as it hit his fingers. The remains of the robot clattered to the floor around Josh.

He looked at his hands and clenched them into fists. "Groovy." He looked up and saw the girl running around the rim of the room. He ran towards her and skidded to a halt between her and the robots. Josh raised his glowing hands as the first robot ran straight into them and it melted around him. "Two down," he murmured as the last robots stopped before they reached him, "Two to go." The crab robot backed off as the humanoid strafed left.

Josh flexed his fingers. He heard panting next to him and glanced over to see the girl. "Hey."

"Hey," she said, "Who're you?"

"Josh. I'd, ah, shake your hand but…" he snapped on of his fingers and leapt in surprise when his hand lit up in fire. "Well," he said shakily, "That's new."

"Where are we?" whimpered the girl.

"No idea. Let's ask." As if on cue, a robot charged. The humanoid jumped at the girl, but she caught it by the neck and it immediately crumpled into the size of a soda can. Josh stared. "How did you do that?" He whispered in awe.

The girl fell slowly to her knees and stared at her hands in shock. "I don't know." She sobbed, "I don't know!"

"It-it's gonna be alright, kid." Said Josh. Of course, fate had to prove him wrong. The crab robot began to hum and it was suddenly surrounded by a field of orange light. It charged like a cheetah at Josh and the girl. Josh raised his hands, ready to melt the machine, but his hands didn't go through the light force field, a shield made of solid light. He realized this just as the droid stampeded over him. He cried out as it threw him ten feet in the air and he landed with a hard grunt. The several ton machine jumped and one of its legs landed on his chest and he cried out in pain as his sternum cracked.

The weight was suddenly lifted off him and he turned his head to see the girl carrying the heavy robot and force field in her bare hands. She held it above her head and roared in fear and anger as she threw it. The machine broke through the wall and the force field failed just as it smashed on the floor in the next room.

Josh panted, each breath causing intense pain. "How…how did…"

The girl broke into sobs again. Josh breathed deeply and closed his eyes. The fire in his gut was dying down and his hands cooled to their normal temperature. There was a cracking noise and both of them looked up. "Hey, you guys, outside your pods!" the voice was female and everywhere at once, but definitely human. "Yeah, you! Listen, I don't have much time before these systems reboot and kick me off the speakers. My name's Oracle and I'm with the Justice League. In the next room is a laser cannon that can bottle a city block. I need you to destroy it, and then we can teleport in some heroes to get you and the rest of the people in there out." There was a sudden burst of static and the voice was cut off.

Josh looked up at the girl. "The Justice League, huh? This must be some heavy duty shit right here."

The girl leaned down and crouched next to Josh. "I'm Ariel." She said as she wiped her eyes.

Josh gently touched his chest and coughed up blood. "Well, Ariel, I think I'm dying." It was an oddly pleasant sensation, dying. There was no light and no sound, just a brief warmth that started in his chest and spread through his entire body, filling him with energy. Josh had always been afraid of death, but this was really quite nice. He wondered where he would go. Was heaven real? Would he wind up there or hell? Oh well, it was in the hands of the powers that be. That was when he realized that his chest actually didn't hurt. He looked down at himself and saw that Ariel's hand was resting on his atop his chest. He slowly sat up.

Ariel gasped at his movements. "But…you were just dying!"

Josh shrugged and stood up woozily. Ariel helped to steady him. "That was very weird, even for me." Ariel stared at him strangely and turned to the whole she had created in the wall to the next room. It was a larger room with three large, glowing pads on the floor. In the middle of the room were four tall, humming pillars.

Ariel pointed at them. "Do you think those power the laser?"

Josh shrugged. "Worth a shot. Let's go cause a little chaos." He walked forward and stepped through the hole. Ariel followed him, watching for more robots. Josh put his hand on the closest pillar and closed his eyes. He concentrated on his diaphragm, focusing on building up the pressure. It took a minute, but he suddenly felt the pressure in his core burst and the fire reignite. His hands immediately warmed up to solar temperatures and melted through the metal of the pillar. It fizzled with electricity for a moment before it shorted out.

Somewhere in the distance, an alarm blared. "Attention," said a monotonous voice, "Protect the main central server." A door slid up from the floor and a host of humanoid robots marched into the room.

"I'll handle them," said Josh, "Think you can use that monster strength to finish these pillars?"

Ariel ran to the next pillar and hesitantly put her hand on it. It imploded and collapsed in on itself instantly. "I think I can manage." She said softly. Josh charged forward, his fists swinging wildly to catch as many robots as he could with his super-heated hands. He cut many in half without even feeling it. Ariel collapsed the third pillar with a touch and ran towards the final one. Just as she was about to touch it, an orb of orange energy fell down upon her, tossing her across the room. She slammed into the wall painfully. She looked up to see a massive robot. It was humanoid, but three times the size of the others. It was also flying.

The giant robot floated down to the ground near Josh and raised its arm, readying some sort of cannon.

"Josh!" Ariel jumped towards the giant robot and flew halfway across the room. She didn't have time to be properly surprised at her new ability as she ended up phasing straight through the robot, causing it to shudder in electric death as it fell to the ground. She couldn't stop herself and slammed into the fourth pillar. "Oww," she groaned as she slid down to the ground. She could feel a headache building up from where she'd hit her head. She leaned against the last pillar and it crumpled beneath her powers.

As the final pillar was crushed, there was an immediate humming sound and rush of wind and energy. Above Josh, an orange tunnel formed from nothing, and speeding through the tunnel to his aid was a famous blue and red blur.

The man of steel exited the portal and hovered in the air above the small battle between Josh and the robots. "Stand back!" he called to Josh. The star-struck Josh immediately ran towards the far wall and Ariel. Superman glared at the Brainiac robots and narrowed his eyes. Twin red beams of light shot out of his optics and blasted apart the first row of robots. He slowly raised his vision and completely demolished line after line of robots until they were all nothing more than pieces of junk. Ariel and Josh both stared at the legendary last son of Krypton in awe. Superman drifted down to their level. "You two get out of here. Oracle has reprogrammed these teleporter pads to take you to the Watchtower. I'll get the rest out." Josh took a deep breath and cooled his hands down. He grabbed Ariel and pulled her towards the nearest pad as Superman flew off into the next room. As soon as they had both feet on the pads, they both experienced a flash of light and a feeling of weightlessness.

The light faded and they looked around at the metal hall they had arrived in. Surrounding them were hundreds of people, some in civilian clothes, some in the signature outfits of heroes. There were people clinging to the walls and floating through the air. There were people made of various elements and people who existed only for a moment before reappearing somewhere else.

Standing in front of them was one of the founders of the Justice League, the emerald Martian Manhunter. "Welcome," he said in a gravely voice, "To the Watchtower. Can you come with me, please?"

. . .

Devon woke slowly, not entirely willing to open is eyes.

"Wake up, Devon," said a soft voice, "It's time for you to wake up." Devon slowly opened his eyes. He was in a white room on a very soft bed. Sitting next to his bed was a bald, smiling man in a nice suit.

"Where am I?" he asked.

The bald man grinned and patted Devon's hand. "You were in trouble, Devon, but I saved you. You're in a safe house in Gotham." The man held out his hand, "My name's Lex." Devon took the hand and shook it, but it required so much energy that he simply didn't have. He was dead tired and needed rest. Lex chuckled and patted his hand. "I have to go to a meeting, but I'll be back. Now, why don't you get some rest, mmm?" Lex stood up and walked out of the room, turning off the light as he did. Devon went out with the fluorescents.

Feel free to review.


	3. Explanations

Same disclaimer as before.

Chapter 3: Explanations

Josh stared up at the last Martian in awe. "You…you're…"

"Martian Manhunter, yes." Said the alien, "Now, I think you're the last ones. I can begin now." He crossed his arms and floated up leisurely to a balcony overlooking the space that hundreds of new meta-humans were currently occupying: the Monitor Womb. "May I have your attention, please." It was not a request, but some still spoke between themselves, trying to figure out what was going on. The Martian narrowed his eyes. _May I have your attention please!_ The voice resonated through the room on a mental wavelength. Everyone clutched their skulls in confusion as they experienced the Manhunter's mental abilities. The alien cleared his throat. "Now that I have your attention," he said, "Allow me to inform you of the current situation. Yesterday, Earth was invaded by an alien intelligence known as Brainiac. Brainiac wishes to digitize all life so he can download all the information in the universe into himself. He has bottled several buildings in an impenetrable force field in multiple cities around the globe. From there, he took human prisoners to digitize." The Manhunter paused. Everyone stared at him in shock, trying to process the information.

"What Brainiac didn't count on, however," he continued, "Was human resilience. A time traveler came to us from the future and released microscopic robots into Earth's atmosphere before he unfortunately ceased to exist. The robots are called Exobytes and were stolen from the technology of Brainiac himself. The Exobytes contain the genetic information of meta humans, and can integrate themselves into a host body. If you are here, it is because you have been infected with one or more Exobytes and they have fused with your genetic code. In other words, you now have super-human abilities." There were a few gasps of surprise and fear, but many had already discovered their new abilities in their escape.

"Unfortunately, you were all captured by Brainiac after he started bottling. Luckily, we managed to free you and bring you here, the Watchtower." With a mental command, the Martian Manhunter telekinetically raised the metal shutters to the massive window at the head of the Watchtower, revealing to his audience their true position. There were screams of delight and panic as the new meta-humans gazed out into starry space, interrupted by the massive blue and green sphere of Earth. "Less than twelve hours ago, this was the setting of a great space battle." Declared the alien, "But we have forced Brainiac's forces back to the asteroid belt for now. His ground forces are still on the planet, however, so we have to move fast." He motioned to the sides of the Womb. Huntress stepped out of the shadows on the left. "Please form two lines," he said, "Huntress and I have scanners that will tell us what kind of Exobytes you have and we will send you to someone who an help you cope with and learn about your specific abilities." As he spoke, the lines quickly formed. Nobody wanted to disobey the superhero a second time.

Martian Manhunter floated down to the right of the Monitor Womb, a chrome pad in his hand.

Josh gulped and looked over at Ariel. She was staring out the window, her pale face now downright white and bloodless. "C'mon," he said gently, "We need help with this." He felt the fire building up in his stomach and he quickly took his hand off of Ariel's shoulder. She turned to him, confused and worried by the loss of a reassuring presence. He shrugged sheepishly as his hands slowly heated up.

The line moved slowly. People were scanned, given directions, and sent on their way. Occasionally, a hero would arrive to whispered murmurs of awe to give Huntress and Martian Manhunter an update. They would deliver the news and go away into the depths of the space station.

After ten minutes of waiting, Josh and Ariel were up. Martian Manhunter waved them forward. Josh turned to Ariel. "You wanna go first or second?" Ariel took a deep breath and stepped forward.

The Martian raised his pad and a red scanning bar took a quick picture of Ariel. "Hmm," he said, "It would appear your powers are copies of my own, if a little weaker. Telepathy, tactile telekinesis, density shifting, flight, even a bit of shape shifting." He pressed a few buttons on the pad and nodded, "I see you have some previous experience with the mystic arts?"

Ariel winced. "Ah, sort of."

Manhunter nodded. "Understood. How about you go see Raven? She's in the Magic Wing, that way. I trust you know who she is?"

Ariel's eyes widened and she took a step back. "I-I don't that's a good idea."

Manhunter waved his hand. "Nonsense, she'll be perfect." With that, a R.E.E.S.E. robot arrived and led Ariel off. Josh stepped forward nervously. The Matian Manhunter scanned him. "You were good for her, you know." He said, looking at the screen.

"What?"

"You were just as scared as she was, but you were brave and inspired her to be brave as well." There was a beep from the pad. "Interesting," said the Manhunter, "Your powers are derived from the Flash and another…the scanner cannot determine who the second Exobyte data emulates, but it appears you have been granted super-speed and reaction time, and a powerful pryokinetic ability." Josh raised his hands. They were glowing white again and small sparks of fire were sprinkling from his fingertips. The Manhunter stepped back. "Kindly quench your fires." He said, a sprig of fear entering his voice. Josh clenched his fists and closed his eyes, concentrating.

He felt a sharp pain in his stomach and doubled over. "Ow!" There was a small breeze and he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Josh looked up to see the red cowl and lighting headpieces of the Flash. "Let it out," the speedster said, concerned, "Stand up, pick a place, and move. J'onn, get down!"

Josh stood with difficulty. "My stomach…it burns!" he whispered in fear.

Flash grabbed him by the forearms. "I know it does, but you just need to run. Follow me." With that, the Flash took off. Josh stared at the speedster. The Flash was supposed to be the fastest man alive, so why was he moving like a normal man? Josh started to run after him. He followed the speedster for a few seconds before he noticed too things. One, a streak of flames was popping up after every step he took. Looking back, he saw the flames leading back from his path. Two, everything was frozen. People he passed didn't move, even the flames were solid and not flickering.

Ahead of him, the Flash stopped in his tracks. Josh tried to copy him, but skid almost ten feet, falling painfully on his rear. The Flash held out his hand. "Feel better?"

Josh breathed deeply, trying to ignore the pain of his rear, but his stomach felt fine. "Much." He took the Flash's hand and was helped to his feet. He looked around and stared in amazement at his new surroundings. They were in a massive room with a balcony with a giant model of a genetic strand slowly revolved. The floor was transparent, allowing him to see the depths of space bellow him. People were everywhere, speeding around or flying. Some were experimenting with their new powers. Josh saw a woman shoot beams of ice into the ceiling. The woman grinned as she looked at her hands in triumph. She looked up and saw the fire trail that Josh had left. With a wave of her hand, the fire froze and an icy breeze spread along the fire, putting the entire trail out.

The Flash grinned at the new speedster's awe. "Welcome to the Meta Wing."

. . .

Ariel gasped when she was shown the Magic Wing. All the rich, creamy tapestries and the mystic runes looked great and made her feel a pleasant warmth as she stepped into the room. The room was packed with new meta-humans, but she saw the golden helm of Dr. Fate flash in the crowd a few times, and even saw Wonder Girl herself jump up and fly to a balcony to get away from the fanboys.

"Come," the robot creeped her out, it reminded her too much of the Brainiac androids. She was led up a ramp and a flight of stairs into a side room. Unlike the Magic Wing, this room was nearly empty except for a few people. It had a large, raised stage where she saw a few people meditating and a massive, floor-to-ceiling window that looked out to the stars. The robot pointed up at the stage where she saw a cloaked figure with it's back turned to her levitating a foot or so off the ground. The robot turned and left, leaving Ariel to stare at the figure.

She knew who it was. It was the person she'd spent two years hating. Two years she would never get back. It was the girl she had almost tried to kill. Ariel took a deep breath and two steps forward. She was brave enough to do this; to talk to the daughter of Trigon. Ariel took another calming breath and another step.

_Well? Are you going to speak with me or not?_

Ariel turned and dashed away. She took the stairs two at the time and, at the bottom, ran smack into a Sentinel of Magic. "Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked.

Ariel shook her head. "Ah, um, bathroom?" The Sentinel nodded and pointed to the left. Ariel ran and found a swinging door with the universally recognizable stick figure woman on it. She dashed through and went straight to the sink where she let loose the contents of her stomach.

She breathed and grabbed a paper towel to wipe her mouth. She had been in her head. _Raven_ had been in her head. She knew everything. Ariel stared at the mirror, wondering what her next move was.

Apparently, fate didn't let her make a choice, because at that moment, the bathroom door opened and in walked a tall, slender woman with a purple cloak and hood. "Hi." Ariel scrambled backwards, away from Raven. The Teen Titan walked up to the mirror and pulled down her hood to check her hair. "Want to talk about it?"

. . .

Devon was in his room, playing with his toys. The door opened with a hiss and Lex walked in. "How are you today, Devon?"

Devon looked up. "I'm doing great today, Lex! How are you?"

The bald corporate executive smiled. "Very good, Devon, thank you. Would you come with me, please?" Devon stood up and took his hand. Lex led Devon out into the next room. It was just as white and bland as his bedroom, but was larger and had black targets at the far end. Devon groaned when he saw the targets. "Now, now, Devon," said Lex sternly, "It's important for a boy your age to work out and grow big and strong."

"But I don't like it," complained the boy, "I sound like a girl."

There was a shimmer of light and a sudden cold blew through the room as Circe teleported in. "And what's wrong with that?" she demanded with a raised eyebrow.

Devon bowed. "I'm sorry, your highness."

Circe sighed. "Dammit boy, I don't know whether to turn you into a pig or pat you on the head." Lex fixed her with a glare and she threw her hands up in defense. "Very well, I'll leave you boys to it. But if I hear you say something like that again, I'll turn you into a gerbil and leave you in some kindergarten class in…I don't know, Omaha." With that, she teleported out in a similar fashion to how she got in.

Lex clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Now, why don't we get started?" Devon turned to face the first target. "Remember, Devon," said Lex, "Think of it like a ball in your throat, and you're throwing it with your voice." Devon opened up his mouth and took a deep breath. With a rush of air, he spat out a sonic bullet which shattered the first target. Lex smiled, rolling his eyes to the heavens in thanks. "The only Exobytes of Black Canary," he whispered, "And I got to him first."

"Did you say something, Lex?" asked Devon.

"Oh, nothing important. Again, Devon, again."

. . .

**I have big plans for this story. I'm really new to all this so comments and reviews are appreciated, even flames.**


	4. Equip

Same disclaimers as before.

Chapter 4: Equip

Ariel stared at Raven from the floor of the brightly-lit bathroom. The hero finished checking herself in the mirror and sat down cross-legged on the floor a few feet from Ariel. Ariel wished she had more room to retreat to.

"Alright," said Raven with a sigh, "If you do not wish to talk, then just listen. I know about you. I felt your presence and I know your past. But I do no judge you for it. I, of, all people, understand the importance of second chances." Ariel pulled in her legs as far as she could, curling into the tightest fetal position she had ever mustered. It would take two trucks and a crowbar to unfurl her at that point. Raven didn't seem to mind. "I forgive you for what you tried to do to me," she said, "But you have to forgive yourself." Ariel didn't say anything and kept her head down, unable to look Raven in the eye. Raven sighed, "I know how corny that sounds, but it really is true. I don't hate you, but you hate yourself for hating me." Raven waited for a response she knew was never coming. "Our powers are very similar, and it would be an honor for me to mentor you and teach you to use your powers like I do. But I can only do that if you can face me, and apparently you cannot face me until you face yourself."

There was no venom in Raven's voice, but Ariel felt poisoned nonetheless. Raven stood up and brushed off her purple cloak. She walked out of the bathroom, leaving Ariel to weep in peace. Memories flashed through her head and she whimpered, rubbing her arms. She needed her razor, that would make things easier. As she tried to block the memories, voices began to rise in her mind, voices that weren't hers.

_This is so cool! I have superpowers!_

_Is that Wonder Woman? She's so much hotter in real life!_

_I wonder how these teleporters work._

Ariel clutched her head and squealed in pain and fear. She rolled over onto her side, waiting for the voices to quell.

. . .

Josh followed the Flash into the reactor core. "Well, here it is," said the Flash, "This reactor powers the entire Watchtower. Firestorm helped set it up."

Josh craned his neck to see every nook and cranny of the room. "Where do you get funding for this thing? I always wondered."

"Eh, a private grant from Wayne Industries. Alright, follow me, I gotta show you something." Flash took off with Josh on his heels. Josh grimaced in embarrassment at the flaming trail he left behind him. He had only had his powers for a few hours and wasn't quite able to keep his feet from lighting up the floor in fire whenever he ran at his new-found super-speed. Luckily, there were a number of people around the Watchtower with the ability to put out his fires as quickly as he set them.

It took almost a second for them to reach the War Room, although it was almost a minute for them. Flash stopped at one of the machines in the War Room, grabbing Josh by the scruff of his shirt before the new speedster could fly off across the room. "Good to see you're getting a hang of the Speed-Force." He said, setting Josh down.

"The what now?"

Flash turned to the machine and touched a screen on the side. A list of options appeared and Flash scrolled through them, looking for something in particular. "The Speed-Force," he explained without looking up, "It's just an intra-dimensional source of limitless power that us speedsters can access to slow down time, thus giving us super-speed. Here." The Flash found what he was looking for and pressed the button. There was a slight crunching noise and a grind as a pair of boots fell out of the machine. "Size 14, right?" Flash handed the boots to Josh. "These increase your traction to the ground, keep your friction up, plus they're fireproof."

Josh took the boots and quickly stepped out of his loafers. "What's with the fancy getup anyway?" Asked Flash as Josh laced up the boots.

"I had a job interview at the Daily Planet when Brainiac captured me."

"Reporter, editor, or photographer?"

"Reporter." Josh stood up and shook his feet to adjust to the new shoes. He ran around the room at super-speed, coming to a complete halt next to the Flash. "Huh, works like a charm."

Flash winced, "Not exactly." Josh looked back and saw he had set the room ablaze with his flaming feet. Flash began rotating his arms at lightning speed. "Let me show you a little trick." The speed of the Flash's arms created a vacuum vortex, stealing the oxygen from the flames and putting half of them out. "Now you try." Josh flexed his fingers and raised his arms. He began to twirling them like helicopter blades. Flash quickly grabbed his arms before he could make a bigger fool of himself. "More…circular."

Josh nodded and tried again, this time achieving the desired motion. He sped up his arms and watched as a vacuum formed from his limbs. He pointed at the fire and quickly sucked away the oxygen. "Cool!" he muttered as the fire died away, "Now if I could just stop making the fire in the first place."

"Why would you want that?" Asked Flash, "You have literal firepower! Why wouldn't you want that?"

"Cause I can't really, you know, control it." Said Josh. He waved his hand, still white hot. "I feel like I've got this fire in my stomach, but I can't put it out whenever I want, it just kinda burns as it wants."

Flash rubbed his chin and ran to the wall. He flipped open a hidden panel and pressed a few buttons. "Do you scare easy?"

"Umm, yes?" A holographic image appeared in front of Josh. He fell back in surprise and horror as he looked into the face of duality. "Is that…?"

"Harvey Dent, formerly of Gotham City District Attorney's Office, now a member of Batman's Rogues Gallery under the alias of 'Two-Face'." Said Flash, "Well, don't be shy. Give him a punch." Josh stared with wide eyes at the well-known criminal before him. He hesitantly moved forwards and gave a gentle punch to the hard-light hologram before quickly retreating. Flash sighed and pressed another button. The hologram of Two-Face shifted as it was given permission to move. The illusion glared at Josh who was now looking for the right place to cower. Two-Face drew twin pistols and took aim as Josh yelped and took off, reigniting the room in fire as he dashed outside of Two-Face's line of fire. Two-Face took a shot and clipped Josh in the heel. Josh tumbled and smashed face-first into a wall.

"Oww!" he exclaimed, "What was that?"

Flash shrugged. "Well it wouldn't be a realistic training exercise if the bullets didn't do diddly-squat, now would it?" Josh clambered to his feet and dashed behind the boot-dispensing machine for cover. Flash checked his nails. "Can I offer some advice?"

Josh winced as a holographic bullet whizzed past his head. "Advice would be good!" he yelled.

"Go on the offensive and not those little jabs either." Flash steepled his fingers. "Tell you what, I see you do a full-on haymaker, and I'll shut off the program." Josh grit his teeth and clenched his fists. "C'mon! Pretend it's an ex or something!" Said Flash.

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod," murmured Josh. He spun around; ready to leap at Two-Face, but a bullet caught him right between the eyes. He grunted in pain and he scrambled back behind his cover.

"Wait for the right moment!" Called Flash, "You're a speedster; you have all the time in the world!" Josh cringed as one of the bullets ricocheted off the wall and hit him on the arm. It had about the same force as a very powerful paintball bullet. "You said you have a fire in your stomach! Don't try to control it, let it flow and disperse through your body." Josh concentrated and flexed his abdomen. He felt the fire in his stomach break up like a cracker and disintegrate; he felt the fire move through his body like blood, filling him with strength and energy. Josh panted as he looked at his hands. They were alight with the fire he felt in his body. He turned his head, listening to the sounds of fire. The time between the bullets grew as Josh sped up. "Wait for it!" called Flash, "Wait for it!" There was an audible click as both of Two-Face's clips emptied. "Now!"

Josh shot out from behind his cover and jumped up, his arm outstretched and covered from shoulder to knuckles in intense fire. The crook of his elbow connected with Two-Face's neck and the criminal sank like a sack of bricks. A sack of bricks on fire. Josh panted as the fire in his body subsided and the hologram of Two-Face flickered off.

Flash grinned. "Well? How do you feel?"

Josh looked up. "Really, really good." He stood up and glanced at his sleeve. "Damn, I really liked this blazer." His sleeve was nearly scorched off. What was left of it was crisp and raggedy.

Flash rubbed his chin. "Look, Josh, I'm gonna ask you outright. Do you want to be a hero?"

Josh looked at his hands; they were still warm from his brief training. He sighed and closed his fists. "Look, Flash, I love what you heroes do. I think you're a vital part of society and I would love to be a part of that."

"But?" Flash motioned for him to continue.

"But…I have a lot of baggage. I've been in therapy for years. I have more phobias than those listed in a first-year med school textbook. I'm just not built for this hero stuff."

Flash nodded and put his hand on Josh's shoulder. "It's cool man. Just don't become a villain. You seem like a nice guy, I'd hate to have to take you down." Josh smiled and nodded. "Now, let's get you home. The Metropolis teleporter is just up there in the Central Hub." Josh nodded and took off towards the pad. He darted down corridors and between people. He stopped a few stories below the Metropolis teleporter. Looking back, he was surprised to see that he hadn't left a fire trail. Perhaps he had used up his fire when he fought Two-Face? He looked up with and chewed his lip in wonder. He glanced at the wall nearby and a thought came to his mind. He backed up and cracked his neck. He shot forward towards the wall at super-speed. Just as he was about to hit it, Josh lifted is leg and placed it on the wall, pulling his body into a vertical run. Josh was now running up a wall. He stared at his feet in amazement and laughed victoriously. He looked up and pushed off from the wall, jumping onto the teleporter pad. He landed with a crouch and stood up, proud of his success.

"Hey, Josh," he turned and saw Ariel walking up the stairs to the pad. She looked even paler than before and had her arms wrapped around herself.

"Ariel! Is everything okay?" He asked, running over to her.

"I'm fine. I see you've learned a little more about you're powers."

"Yeah, the Flash was a big help."

"Good for you."

"Was Raven helpful? I hear she does good work with the Titans."

Ariel hesitated before answering. "No, not really."

"Oh? That's too bad." They stood together in silence for a moment before Josh said, "Well, ready to go home?"

Ariel nodded. "Yeah, my mother must be worried."

Josh looked up at the light that shone upon the two of them. "Metropolis, please, outside the Daily Planet if you can manage it." There was a flash of white light and the two linked as they found themselves in a brick room.

There was a police officer there that tipped his cap to them. "Welcome to MPD 7th precinct, folks." He said, "Where can I take you."

. . .

He brought them outside and took them in his squad car. Josh was dropped off at his apartment first. "It was nice to meet you, Ariel. I hope things work out for you." He said with a smile as he got out.

"You too," she said softly. She was surprised to realize that she meant it. Josh was a good person. He had helped her even when she was a stranger and deserved a good life. It was another ten minutes before the she was dropped off at her mother's apartment. Ariel zoned out as her mother hugged her and cried over her and fussed over her.

Finally, she found herself in her bed, a welcome change of light comfort after a hard day. The weight of her life was taken off of her shoulders and she sighed, letting sleep claim her. As soon as she shut her eyes, however, four red ones opened and she snapped back awake, her eyes wide with fear. Without even looking, she reached under her bed and pulled out a razor blade.

. . .

Devon stared at Lex. "You want me to hit all of these…at the same time?"

Lex smiled. "Yes, and if you do, then you can have some candy."

Devon looked worriedly at the white targets that surrounded him. Lex stood back as Devon opened his mouth and sucked in air. Devon's scream shattered three of the targets, leaving four. Lex sighed and drew a taser from his breast pocket. With a sharp jab, he plunged the taser into Devon's back. The boy screeched with pain and arched his back, screaming to the sky. The remaining targets were destroyed and Lex thrown backwards as Devon lost consciousness.


	5. Attacks

Same disclaimers as before

Chapter 5: Attacks

Josh sighed, gazing down on the paper. He was sitting on a bench at the Queensland Boardwalk, reading the latest Daily Planet paper; the last one to come out before their building was bottled. He had circled certain jobs in the classified section, but none of them paid as well as the Planet. Unfortunately, since their building was still encased in an impenetrable force field, the Daily Planet was off of print until they could find a new building. Their radio and television shows were still active, but Josh was nervous enough in his writing, being on screen or on air would be too much for him.

With a low grunt, he wadded the paper up and looked around. The boardwalk was fairly empty, but the few people that were there weren't looking at him. He concentrated and felt the fire in his abdomen ignite. The wadded paper in his hand burned away and he quickly dispersed the fire throughout his body to keep it from building up.

Josh looked out over the horizon. The sun was rising and more people were coming to the boardwalk. The Ferris Wheel was already full of kids and their parents celebrating the fact that it was the weekend. Josh leaned back on his bench and closed his eyes.

"Rough week?" said a deep voice beside him.

"Yeah, I was supposed to work at the Planet."

"Oh, tough break!"

"Yeah, plus this alien invasion and…some other stuff going on. It's a lot to handle."

"I can imagine."

"Mmm, how about you?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Building weapons and tools for our glorious leader so we can take over the world; you know how it is."

Josh frowned. "Wait…what?" He opened his eyes and turned to see a massive, hairy gorilla sitting next to him, looking at him with equal surprise. Josh jumped up and stumbled back "Talk-talking gorilla!"

The gorilla drew of futuristic looking weapon. "Human!" He fired and a beam of light erupted from the gun. Josh dodged to the left, but the beam struck a woman walking behind him. She was thrown back with a scream and the boardwalk erupted into chaos. Gorillas emerged from the sea and jumped up onto the boardwalk, some carrying guns, others carrying massive pillars of metal machinery.

People were either chased off the boardwalk or hounded closer to the pillars. In front of Josh's horrified eyes, the people who got too close to the machines slowly grew larger and hairier, their faces morphing darker. After about a minute, they had completely devolved into apes. Josh activated his super speed and dashed towards the Carousel. With a mighty leap, he landed on top of the ride and watched in horror as the boardwalk was overrun.

"What is happening!" he whimpered, "What is this!"

"Hey!" Josh spun and saw a gorilla pointing at him from the ground. The ape raised his gun and fired. Josh raised his arms, but the beam struck him in the chest.

It was like a sledgehammer striking his sternum. Josh cried out as he was flung backwards into the air. He flew over the Carousel and landed with a heavy splash in the ocean. He drifted in the waves in shock before he scrambled to the surface for air. Josh shook his head, trying to clear it off water before he began to swim, as quietly as possible, towards the beach.

. . .

"And over here is our famous Metropolis University Bell Tower!" said the spritely tour guide. Some of the prospective students wrote notes on clipboards while parents snapped pictures of the iconic locations. Ariel, for her part, kept her head down and her arms folded.

Her mother was standing besides her, an arm around her daughter's shoulder. "Oh, c'mon, honey." She sighed, "Look up, you need to be thinking about this!"

"I am, mom." Ariel grunted, raising her head slightly.

Her mother sighed and pulled Ariel away from the group. "Listen, Ariel," she said, holding the girl at arm's length, "I know the last week has been…different. But that doesn't change the fact that I care about you and your future. I just…I just want you to be happy again." Ariel sneered internally. She couldn't remember being happy in a long time, and even the happiness she could recall was counterfeit. On the outside however, she kept her face as neutral as possible. Her mother sighed and pulled her in for a hug. _I love you_.

Ariel closed her eyes and focused, bringing herself away from the situation.

_Man! This place is great! I'm definitely coming here!_

_I don't know about these dorms._

_Hungry._ Ariel's eyes snapped open. That last voice had sounded like a raspy old man. _Must feed. Give energy to Parasite_. Ariel gasped. Her mother pulled away. "Honey? Something wrong?"

"There's something here." Ariel murmured, "Something bad."

Her mother grimaced. "Okay. Should I call the police?"

Sirens rang in the distance. "I don't think you need to," said Ariel dryly.

Her mom nodded. "Okay, we should get inside." Together, they ran across the empty street to the library. Ariel's mother pushed open a door just as a monster ran out. It was a purple-skinned, hairless humanoid. Ariel shrieked and stumbled backwards as the purple creature dove at her mother. It sank its teeth deep into her shoulder and Ariel's mother slowly sank to the ground. As Ariel watched, her mother's hair slid back into her skull and her skin began to lose its tone and color.

The purple creature released her mother and looked up at Ariel with a snarl. "Hungry."

Ariel backed up and raised her arms in defense. "Stay back!"

The beast lunged and Ariel cried out. She swung her arm wildly and connected with the creature's side. At that moment, two things happened. First, Ariel felt a sharp pain in her head for a split second and a rush of energy flew through her arm. The creature screamed and was sent flying through the air, smashing into the arch over the entrance to the library and falling to the ground. It lay there unmoving with stone chips falling on it. Second, after she made contact with the creature, Ariel felt a huge wave of pure exhaustion wash over her. It was like she had been exercising for days without stop. Every muscle screamed for relief. Even her mind, which had been buzzing with a strange, pleasant sensation for the last week, seemed duller. Ariel breathed heavily, trying to fathom what had just happened.

Since she had left the Watchtower, she had been working on controlling her telepathy. She had mastered the ability to enter a mind and sort through its contents (learning several unsavory things about her most loathed gym teacher in the process) and how to block the voices of other minds from overwhelming hers. However, Ariel did find it a nice distraction in boring classes to let a wave of foreign thoughts wash over her and emerge herself in a mental sea. Some of her classmates were actually much more intelligent, witty, and creative than she gave them credit for. Others were just as dumb, foolish, and ignorant as she believed.

Ariel stared at her hands. On the Watchtower, Martian Manhunter had mentioned something called 'Tactile Telekinesis'. Ariel had looked that up and discovered that it was being able to move something with your mind, so long as you were touching it. She had tried it several times with heavy objects around the apartment, but she had only succeeded in giving herself a migraine. Now, however, it appeared her powers were growing as there was no way she could have launched that monster into the air with her normal strength. "Mom," she whispered shakily, "What's happening to me?" She looked up and gasped.

Her mother was standing up. Her skin was wrinkled and purple and she looked at Ariel like she was a meal. "Hungry."

"Mom?" Ariel backed up, "Oh, no." There was a violent skidding noise around the corner and Ariel looked over to see an MPD squad car making a cringe-worthy turn. The car was leaning on its two left wheels as it slid into a smooth doughnut behind Ariel before screeching to a stop.

Two cops jumped out with their guns drawn. "Ma'am!" Shouted one, his weapon raised to Ariel's mother's head. "Get on the ground!"

"Wait! No!" cried Ariel, but her mother had already lept at the officers and they opened fire. The bullets hit her mother in the chest and the purple beast she had become fell to the ground. "Oh God! Mom!" Ariel felt tears falling down her cheek, but was completely numb to the sensation.

"It's alright, kid!" shouted one of the cops, "Bullets only put them down for a few minutes. She'll recover." He helped Ariel to her feet, but she kept her head down. "Jesus, she's in shock. Can we get an ambulance?"

The other cop shook his head. "Their all dispatched around campus, and I hear there's some ruckus down at the boardwalk. They can't spare anymore right now."

The first officer sighed. "Okay, come with us kid. They're setting up a perimeter a few blocks away. We got Power Girl from the JSA patrolling the boarders."

Ariel's head snapped up. "Power Girl?"

"Yeah, you like superheroes, kid?"

Ariel stared at the two purple creatures lying on the steps to the library. "They're parasites," she whispered.

"What?"

"Parasites. When I touched one-"

"Wait," interrupted one of the police officers with a nervous look on his face, "You touched one? We have to get you to quarantine!"

Ariel looked up. "No, you have to get me to Power Girl."

. . .

Josh crawled onto the beach. He had always been a terrible swimmer, but good enough to keep him alive. He collapsed in the sand as he breathed, trying to catch his breath. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "Stupid monkeys." He muttered, pushing himself up.

"We're apes, you ignorant fool." Josh opened his eyes and his jaw dropped. He was completely surrounded by a dozen massive gorillas, all of them holding guns on him. He sheepishly raised his hands in surrender, desperately hoping he hadn't wet himself with fear.

One of the gorillas rolled its eyes. "This one is a coward, not worthy of devolution. No prisoners." The gorillas grinned and hooted as they raised their guns to Josh's head.

Before anyone could react, a red blur shot between the apes, moving faster than a blink.

"Hey, fellas!" said the Flash with a friendly wave besides Josh, "Don't you need these?" The guns that the gorillas had been holding were now in a pile on the shore behind Flash. Josh nearly tripped over himself when Flash appeared next to him, but he now stood steady. The gorillas, for their part, made the right choice and ran away like little girls. "You okay, Josh?"

Josh gulped nervously, but grinned, "Yeah, I was about to get 'em with a one-two but you showed up and ruined the fun."

Flash smiled. "What can I say, I'm a killjoy." A vibrational hum cut through the air and Flash's grin disappeared. "You hear that? Teleporters. They're bringing in the cavalry." He turned to Josh. "Listen, Josh, I know you said you didn't want to be a hero, but I need your help on this one."

Josh hesitated for a moment, but then he heard a child's scream in the distance. As he listened, the scream morphed into a violent roar as the child was devolved. "What can I do to help?"

Flash looked over at the boardwalk and at the pier. "There," he said pointing, "By the Ferris Wheel and Carousel. Those are the teleporters. Destroy them before they can bring in more soldiers. See if you can destroy some of those devolvers on the way."

"And you?"

"I'm going after Grodd."

"Grodd?"

"Gorilla Grodd. He's just a hyper-intelligent ape with mental powers and dreams of global conquest. No biggie." The Flash disappeared in red blur, but was back in less than a second. "Almost forgot," he said. He held something out to Josh who took it anxiously. It was a black domino mask. "I know you aren't going to stick around as a hero, but you should keep your identity secret."

"Right," said Josh. The mask attached to his face with some kind of adhesive built into the fabric. It felt like silk on his skin, but also very natural.

"You got this?" asked the Flash.

"I-I think so."

The Flash shrugged. "That's all I can ask for. Stay safe." He sped off, leaving a trail of kicked up sand in his wake. Josh breathed deeply and activated his super speed. He concentrated and the fire built up in his stomach. He turned to the pier.

"I must be insane," he muttered, "Lock me in Arkham and throw away the key." With a deep breath, he ran forward, his arms outstretched as his sleeves burst into flames. His limbs were white hot and his feet set off a shower of sparks with every step. He ran up the wall of the stone pier and onto the boardwalk. Faster than any gorilla could react, he shot forward, his arm slicing through a devolver machine like a hot knife through butter. The machine exploded behind him as he ran forward, cutting through the next machine and the next. It took him less than a second to reach the end of the pier, a series of explosions going off behind him as the machines blew up. He skid to a stop next to the Carousel. There were two gorillas hunched over a tube-like device that was emitting the humming sound.

"Hey!" Shouted Josh. The gorillas looked up at him and grunted in surprise. They raised their guns at him, but Josh was too fast for them. He ran his fingers over their guns, melting the barrels and rendering them useless. The gorillas roared and jumped over their machine. Josh dodged between them, scorching the cement ground they stood on. Both apes howled in pain and leapt away, their bare feet smoking. With a grin, Josh raised his hand. "Hay-ah!" he brought it down with a mighty karate chop, splitting the tube in two with his molten-hot hand.

He looked up and his smile fell. Across the pier at the Ferris Wheel, massive floating platforms were appearing in the sky, each loaded with dozens of gorilla warriors, roaring for battle. "Oh boy." Josh cracked his knuckles and knelt down. The fire in his stomach spread through his blood. The gorillas began to jump off the platforms to the pier. Josh ran forward, letting a blazing fire trail behind him. He ran circles around the gorillas that were on the ground, trapping them in flames. Gorillas kept dropping, however, and eventually he just ran back and forth in a straight line, cutting off the Ferris Wheel from the rest of the pier with a wall of fire.

Josh stopped and looked at his wall with pride. His satisfaction was short lived as the massive platforms drifted over his fire and began dropping gorillas besides him. He quickly kicked the closest one in the chest, using the fire in his legs to knock it off the pier. In the sky, more platforms were forming. Josh grimaced and crouched down. Like a bullet from a gun, he shot forward through his fire wall. Before any of the apes on the far side could react, he ran headlong through the teleporter tube, causing it to explode behind him as he ran vertically up the Ferris Wheel. Beams of light shot by him as gorillas fired at him. Josh reached the top of the wheel and, without stopping, jumped. He flew into the air towards the closest platform and he landed on it with a roll and a grunt.

The gorillas there raised their weapons wordlessly and opened fire. Josh breathed deeply and dodged between the beams. He felt the fire rushing through his arms and ran straight towards the nearest ape, his arm pulled back in a textbook haymaker. The gorilla went flying, giving Josh time to engulf his hand in fire. He plunged his fist into the platform and the flying device shuddered. It slowly shut down and drifted to the side, knocking another platform off balance before falling to the ground in a flaming wreck.

Josh jumped off the platform just before it touched down, the forward momentum and force of the explosion throwing him through the air. He cried out and spun in the air. He slammed into the wooden 'Queensland Boardwalk' sign at the head of the pier. He groaned and fell the ground, wooden planks falling around him. He struggled to his feet and leaned against a bench.

Looking up, he saw that he was surrounded by angry, armed apes. "Um…sorry?"

. . .

The perimeter was just a few wooden police blockades cutting off a few roads. Behind the blocks, reporters hounded frightened students for interviews. Occasionally, there was a cry of fear as a purple parasite broke through the blockade, but they were quickly shot down by police and thrown over the barriers.

The two officers dropped Ariel off at the perimeter and drove off to find more survivors. Ariel ran past the blockade. Immediately, she was given a blanket and a water bottle by a passing nurse. "Excuse me," she asked, "Where's Power Girl?"

The nurse checked her watch nervously. "She left to find the source of this madness. I need to go. There are some doctors who're working on a cure." Ariel nodded and bit her lip. Power Girl wasn't there. If she got too close to a parasite, her power would be drained and the parasite would get kryptonian superpowers. Ariel gulped and dodged through the crowd, looking for a place to hide. Finally, she found an abandoned ambulance and quickly dove inside, closing the doors behind her.

"Well?" Ariel spun and gasped, scrambling at the door. Before her stood Raven, her arms crossed and her hood raised. "What are you going to do?"

"What are you doing here?" Ariel whispered. The door refused to budge.

"I'm a hero. There's a crisis. Do the math."

"Then do something!" Ariel gave up with the door and backed herself into a corner.

Raven shrugged. "No can do. I'm a mental projection of your imagination."

Ariel groaned. "Great, now I'm hallucinating."

"Hallucinating," agreed Raven with a nod, "Or maybe just thinking with a conscious."

"What?"

The projection of Raven pointed to the shelf above Ariel. It held rolls of bandages and a pair of scissors. "You want your mother back? If Parasite gets his hand on Power Girl's abilities, he'll level the surrounding blocks."

Ariel took the bandages and scissors. "What do you want me to do?"

Raven smiled. "What needs to be done." Her form drifted away into shadow and she disappeared. Ariel carefully measured the bandages and wrapped it around her head. She put her hands over her eyes and removed the bandage, keeping her hands over where her eyes were. She quickly cut out rough circles in the cloth and re-wrapped it, making a make-shift mask.

Ariel tried to open the ambulance, but the doors were stuck. She sighed and laid a hand on the door, focusing. The door clicked and opened, the lock broken by her powers. Outside, the crowd had grown larger and more chaotic. Nobody noticed when a girl exited an empty ambulance. They did notice when she drifted into the air.

"Oh boy," muttered Ariel as she steadied herself in the air. She had experimented only lightly with her ability to fly. She had only drifted a few inches off the ground in the shower before. Now, she was at twenty feet and rising.

_Hey! Look at that!_

_Must be one of those new heroes. _

_She'll help us!_

Ariel closed her eyes and shut out the voices. She opened them and leaned forward, putting her arms out straight. She gently flew forward with a series of shaky jerks.

It took her a while to reach the Bell Tower. When she finally got there, she looked up and immediately rose. It was easier to go up and down than to go in directions, she found. She hopped up to the top of the Bell Tower and landed easily on the observation deck. Luckily, it was empty, likely due to what amounted as a terrorist attack on the campus. Ariel sat down and leaned against the balcony, closing her eyes and letting the voices in.

_Help! Help!_

_It's the Parasite! Run!_

_Daddy? Where's my Dad?_

_When I get my hands on Parasite-_

Ariel's eyes snapped open. It was Power Girl, she had found her. She was in the computer labs. Ariel jumped up and flew into the air, diving down towards the entrance to the labs. "Hang on, Power Girl, I'm coming."

. . .

Josh panted, his breath catching up to him as the fire in his stomach struggled to stay alive. The entire boardwalk was in flames. The gorillas were in full retreat, fleeing from the fire-demon that could move faster than their guns could shoot. Josh raised his arms and made spinning vortexes with them, blowing the oxygen away from the flames, putting out most of the ones close to him. He gulped and fell over, his muscles screaming from exhaustion.

"Need some help there, friend?" A gust of heavy wind blew the rest of the fire on the boardwalk out to the river, putting them all out at once. "Here." Josh felt metal at his lips, pouring in a sickly sweet liquid. He gulped and immediately felt his body relax. His muscles stopped groaning and the fire in his stomach grew back up to a sizable heat.

Josh looked up and gasped. "Su-Superman?" The man of steel grinned down at him. "What did I just drink? What's-"

"Easy, friend," said Superman, "I just gave you Soder Cola, instant rejuvenation in a can." He helped Josh to his feet. "Did you do this?" He motioned at the scorched boardwalk.

"Yeah," said Josh, rubbing his arm nervously, "Sorry, but there were these talking gorillas and-"

"I know," said Superman grimly, "Flash has been captured."

Josh's eyes widened behind his mask. "What?"

"Yeah, Gorilla Grodd has him in his headquarters in a warehouse next to the fire department."

"So, you'll get him right?"

Superman shook his head. "They need me at the Watchtower. Brainiac might try another invasion attempt this afternoon; we've been seeing a lot of activity in his fleet this morning."

Josh gasped. "But what about Flash?" Superman gave him a slight grin. "No." said Josh. "No, no! I can't do it!"

Superman shrugged. "You're the only one who can. We have a major crisis down at Met U and the situation in space. The League can't spare anyone right now."

"But the Flash! He's a founding member!"

Superman nodded. "And now, he ne needs your help."

Josh grimaced. "Oh God, this is insane! I'm just a journalist, what can I do?"

Superman laughed and laid a hand on Josh's shoulder. "You can run faster than a bullet and can burn hotter than a volcano; figure it out." He gently flew off into the air

"Wait!" cried Josh, "I'm not a hero!"

Superman grinned at him. "Could've fooled me!" He shot off into the sky, nearly breaking the sound barrier as he did.

Josh sighed and rubbed his hands. "Could've at least left me some of that Soder Cola." He muttered, "Now, where's that warehouse?"

. . .

Lex stared at the screen. "What am I looking at here?"

"It's an outrage!" declared the Joker, his usual grin absent, "A blatant rip-off!"

"Oh, grow up," muttered Circe. She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. They were in the Inner Sanctum, a massive holographic screen in front of them. The Joker paced back and forth, ranting to himself.

Lex simply stared at the screen with mild interest. "A villain outside of the Society," he murmured, "This could be interesting."

"Interesting?" said the Joker, "Interesting! This is plagiarism, pure and simple!"

"Perhaps," countered Lex, "Or maybe this is someone new, someone with exobytes, unclaimed." On the screen was an image of the Wayne Enterprises Building in Gotham. The top floor was on fire and the rest of the building was spray painted in large, white letters 'ANARKY'.

. . .

Batman was looking at the same image on the screen of the main Batcave supercomputer.

Robin stood next to him. "What does it mean?" asked the boy wonder.

Batman remained emotionless. "It means we have a new player in the game."

. . .

Circe checked her nails. "How's that prodigy you were working with, Lex?"

"He's doing well." Lex didn't take his eyes of the screen or his hand from his chin.

"He's from Gotham, isn't he?"

Joker grinned. "You know, Lexy, I could use a little song bird to help me my Anarky problem!"

Circe barked a laugh. "I thought you were all about anarchy, Joker?"

The Joker scowled and glared at her. "I'm all about _my_ anarchy, Circe dear. This is some killjoy activist with no funny bone! No panache, no gravitas! He gives us psychopaths a bad name!"

Circe rolled her eyes. "And you would be the authority on that, wouldn't you?"

Joker puffed his chest out with pride in response.

Lex turned to the others. "Regardless, we should get in contact with this Anarky. I'll send in someone to look around for him. Now, if you'll excuse me," he stood up and straightened his tie, "I have an experiment in Metropolis that should be coming to a close."

. . .

Who's feet do I have to kiss to get a review around here?


	6. Missions

Same disclaimers as before.

Chapter 6: Missions

Josh stared at the door to the warehouse. He was shaking violently, half from his super-speed, half from his nerves. The street was empty and the wind blew softly through the trees on the sidewalk. This warehouse, according to Superman, was the base of Gorilla Grodd where the ape leader was holding Josh's friend and mentor, the Flash, hostage.

Josh ran at super-speed across the street, putting his hand on the door to the warehouse. He immediately shot back across the street, hugging himself in fear. He couldn't do this! He was an English major for God's sake! He had been on a high-anxiety medication since he was eleven! He was no hero, no matter what powers the Exobytes had given him.

But the Flash needed his help. He ran across the street.

Gorilla Grodd would kill him! He ran away.

But Superman said he was the only one that could save Flash. He ran back to the warehouse.

Josh sighed and rubbed his head. "C'mon Josh," he muttered to himself, "Do something important for once in your life." He placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes. He sent a wave of fire through his arm, melting the metal door into a puddle of liquid steel. Inside looked like just a regular, two story warehouse. Josh stepped inside hesitantly. There were empty shelves scattered around, a few boxes here and there, and group of barrels huddled together against the far wall, but nothing to indicate that hyper-intelligent gorillas were using it as a military base.

Josh walked around, using the fire in his hand to light the dark room. He passed the barrels and gulped as he saw a large 'Highly Flammable' on the sides and quickly backed away. He stopped and stared at the barrels. He turned his head to the side and saw a glimpse of light in the cracks between the barrels. He peered at the slight opening and backed up slowly. When he felt he was a sufficient distance away, Josh raised his hand and narrowed his eyes. With a bit of concentration, he formed a small, base ball-sized orb of fire in his hand. Like a major league pitcher, Josh wound up and tossed the fireball into the barrels.

The explosion was massive and unlike anything Josh had ever seen outside of the movies. The force of the explosion threw him back against the far wall. When the blast subsided, Josh slid to the ground and rubbed his head. Where the barrels once stood, there was now a gaping hole in the wall where a hidden stairwell led down into the earth. Josh stood up and rolled his shoulders. A few black-headed gorillas peeked out from the stairwell to see what had caused the explosion. As soon as they saw Josh, they began hooting and grunting wildly, running back down the stairs.

Josh sighed and ran after them at super-speed. He squeezed between them and held out his hands to the side, clothes-lining the two apes. They stumbled down the stairs, landing on their heads with twin thuds. Josh walked down the stairs into a metal-walled room. It was lit by florescent lights. "Well, at least they're environmentally friendly," muttered Josh.

The room opened into an empty, metal hallway. Josh walked down it, his hands ready to turn into flaming fists at any moment. He rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a large group of gorillas in blue harnesses with futuristic-looking guns. The gorillas and Josh stared at each other in confusion for a moment, but then the gorillas leveled their weapons. Josh sighed and crouched down, raising his fists as they burst into flame. "Here we go again."

. . .

Ariel dove through the air like a falcon. She pulled up just at the entrance to the science lab. She spared a quick look around and grimaced at the disaster zone that was the Metropolis University campus. Police were scattered around, fighting off purple-skinned leeches that were sucking the life from fleeing students.

Here and there, Ariel saw flashes of capes. New heroes, she assumed, Exobyte powered meta-humans like herself who had sided with the Justice League. Normally, she would leave things to them, but there was no time now. Power Girl was inside and she needed to be warned to stay away from the power-draining parasites. Ariel opened the door and flew inside.

She found herself in a long hallway. Ariel gasped and ducked behind a nearby column when she saw she was not alone. A purple, goliath shambled up and down the hallways. Ariel gripped her head and screamed silently as it passed; the creature's thoughts were powerful and overwhelming.

_Hungry. Must feed. There is food near…Kryptonian food!_

Ariel massaged her temples in an attempt to ward off the thoughts. They were making her hungry herself, it made her feel like she should help Parasite eat Power Girl. He was hungry, she was food; it was simple. She shook her head and took a deep breath. She hadn't used the meditation technique she had been taught to use in years, but she needed to clear her mind. She closed her eyes and focused on the symbol in her mind; a jagged skull with twin horns and four piercing eyes. Slowly, the image engulfed her thoughts, calming her body and blocking out Parasite's thoughts as he marched by the pillar she hid behind.

"I will get through that barrier!" the giant leech roared, breaking Ariel's concentration, "No force field can stop me forever, Power Girl!" Ariel looked across the hallway. There was an arch leading into another hall. It was covered in a red shield of light, a solid force field. Behind it, Power Girl was floating a few feet off the ground, her arms folded over her chest.

"Parasite," she smirked, "You couldn't have planned this yourself. What's really going on here?"

Parasite grinned and slammed his body against the force field. It flickered slightly, but did not yield. Power Girl didn't even flinch. "I'm only here for dinner!" he growled, "I'm starving!"

Power Girl rolled her eyes. "You're always hungry, Parasite. My powers won't sate you."

"You can't stop the hunger!"

Power Girl sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "It's like dealing with a child," she muttered, "A child with super powers and hostages." She looked up at Parasite. "Look, call back your forces and I won't beat you up too badly."

Parasite laughed. "You're over confident, Power Girl."

"What makes you say that? I'm behind a shield, but I can blast you away with my heat vision without touching you. If you can't touch me, you can't absorb my powers."

Parasite smirked evilly. "Under normal circumstances, absolutely. However, my subordinates have already infiltrated this building's basement where the generator is stored. In other words, this force field should be down right about…" The force field flickered quickly and vanished. Power Girl's eyes widened and she raised her hands in defense. Parasite charged at her. Down the hall, a door burst open and a swarm of small, purple parasites trampled out.

Ariel gasped and looked back and forth between Power Girl and the swath of parasites down the hall. She groaned and ran out from behind the pillar. She put her hand on the ground and used her powers to fold the marble tiles around her fists into stony boxing gloves. She charged towards the swarm of parasites with a wild and frightened howl.

The parasites stopped in their tracks, staring in confusion at the crazy girl with Ace bandages wrapped around her head and stone boxing gloves. Their hesitation was Ariel's opportunity. She slammed her stone-covered fist into the lead parasite, sending the monster into the air. It hit the ceiling with a satisfying thud and fell down in front of Ariel. She backed away with a startled yelp. The other parasites growled and leapt at her. Ariel spun left and right like a ballerina as they attempted to dog pile her. After a few moments, one managed to grab her arm and she gasped. Her arm went numb and she felt a cold creep across her body. Her head was exploding in agony as she felt her mental powers slipping away.

"Let her go!" a whoosh of powerful wind slammed into the parasite, sending it reeling. Power Girl slammed into the ground next to Ariel and punched the floor. The resulting shockwave sent the parasites flying as Power Girl kept a tight grip on Ariel. "You all right, kid?" she asked, setting the girl down. Ariel nodded nervously and rubbed her arm. "Good. Listen, if we can draw them into the lecture hall, we'll have more space to work with. Follow me." With that, Power Girl leapt into the air, flying off down the hall. Ariel followed her, her left arm hanging down loosely and her stone gloves slipping off and shattering on the floor.

The hallways twisted and turned like a maze. Every time they turned a corner, Ariel could see the mass of parasites, led now by the big purple-people eater himself, close on their tail. Finally, Power Girl burst through a pair of double doors. Ariel flew into the room and immediately shot upwards. As the main Parasite entered, lunging for Power Girl. Ariel reached behind her and broke off a large chunk of the stone wall with her powers. With a grunt of effort, she threw it down on Parasite. It cracked over his skull and he fell to the ground like a sack of bricks. Unfortunately, his swarm of followers simply leapt over his body and charged Power Girl. She slapped a few away, but Ariel could see how every punch made her weaker, slower. Ariel fell to the ground and placed her palms on the floor. She closed her eyes and gasped.

She could feel it all. Through her palms, she could feel the individual molecules that made up the tiles. Ten feet away, she could feel the swarm of parasites and she could feel Power Girl fighting them off. Ariel grunted and a vein began to bulge in her forehead. From the ground erupted multiple spikes that strategically shot up to trap the limbs of the parasites and immobile them. Ariel groaned and slumped over, her energy completely spent. Her brain throbbed painfully. Power Girl ran to her side and helped her to lie down. "Good work, kid. What do you call yourself? Bandage Girl? Did Ace sponsor you or something?"

What did she call herself? She was too tired to think of an alias. "Ariel," she murmured.

Power Girl nodded. "I get it. New to the game, not entirely sure what to go by. It's cool." There was a chattering noise and both girls looked over their shoulders to see a second swarm of parasites standing in the doorway, looking at them like they were steaks on a platter.

"Power Girl?" Ariel whispered.

"Yeah, kid?"

"I think you'll have to take care of this solo." Ariel closed her eyes and let the darkness overwhelm her, sending her into the realm of the unconscious.

. . .

Josh punched left and ran right. Then he punched right and ran left. He repeated this, occasionally stooping to dodge the occasional bullet or fist, but always managing to clear it. He swooped to the side to avoid a wild punch and returned it with three of his own, making the gorilla stumble into the line of fire of his comrade. It was this confusion and Josh's super-speed that allowed him to take down the patrol of gorillas in less than a minute.

When they were all on the floor, unconscious or smoking or both, Josh rested on his knees, catching his breath. His hands were still steaming slightly when he rose back up and cracked his back. With the hallway empty and unprotected, Josh slowly walked forward. The hallway eventually opened up into a wide room with a raised platform. Scattered around the room were blue, opaque orbs where humans were desperately trying to punch their way out. A few gorilla engineers were fiddling with machines around the room. As Josh watched, a gorilla with a pouch strapped over his shoulder lumbered over to an orb with a screaming woman inside. He drew a remote from his pouch and pressed big red button.

The woman shrieked as she watched her hands become hairy and she quickly morphed into a gorilla. She quieted down and her blue force field shrunk down and disappeared.

"Excellent," grunted the gorilla, "Our new software has increased the speed of the devolution process by 54%."

Another gorilla gave a low laugh. "It's almost like some of these humans are worth more than they appear."

A third gorilla scowled. "Don't kid yourselves," he warned, "Lex Luthor will be one of us just as all the other humans." Josh gave a small gasp. It had been rumored that Lex Luthor, wealthy Metropolis businessman, and his company, Lexcorp, had engaged in shady business practices, but never could he imagine that Luthor would fund or even support these tyrannical apes.

Unfortunately, his quiet, surprised gasp did not go unnoticed. A gorilla glanced up sharply and growled as he saw Josh's head peeking around from the hallway. "Human!"

"Where?"

"There!" They all drew guns and began firing. Josh ran behind a blue ball as he dodged the blasts.

"Get us out of here!" Yelled the man trapped in the bubble. Josh grimaced as an energy beam shot over his head.

"Working on it." He muttered. He took a deep breath and remembered the training room. He focused on the rate of fire, waiting patiently for a break. After a few seconds, the blasts that went over his head became slightly less frequent. That was all he needed. Josh flipped over the bubble and ran at the nearest gorilla. He barreled into it, his full force and fire being pushed into his legs. He hit the massive ape, sending it into the far wall.

A blast came so close to his head, he could smell his nose hairs burning. He quickly ducked into a roll and landed with a crouch right in front of one of the gorillas. He leaped up, pushing his inner fire through his arms. His fist slammed into the gorilla's jaw and the gorilla sank slowly to the ground. The last gorilla roared angrily and tossed his gun to the side, choosing instead to use his fists. He swung wildly at Josh who ducked under him and wrapped his arms around the gorilla's neck. He concentrated and the fire in his arms burst out of his pores, like thousands of tiny rockets in the gorilla's face. For a moment, the ape screeched in pain, but after a moment, fell to the ground, unable to take the heat.

Josh dropped the gorilla and looked around, searching for a way to shut off the force fields.

"There!" shouted one of the prisoners, pointing to a consol on the wall, "They used that to put us in these!" Josh ran over to the touch screen consol, his eyes darting over the various options. "Well?"

Josh threw up his hands. "I can operate Microsoft Office and that's it." His hands became engulfed in flame and he brought them down hard on the computer, melting straight through the metal and frying the circuitry. There was a slight hum as the machines around the room powered down, including the bubble force fields. The prisoners ran from the room, a few shouting quick thanks at Josh before they left.

There was a hissing sound and Josh turned to see a door on the far wall slide open. Beyond it, the Flash was standing in another force field, his arms crossed and his feet tapping impatiently. The hero glanced over his shoulder and did a double take when he saw Josh. Flash put a finger to his lips in the universal symbol for silence and Josh crept forwards. The room the Flash was held in was a large hall, roughly the size of the warehouse that stood above them. Behind the Flash was a large computer with whirling buttons and lights. Beyond that, at the far end of the hall, Josh could see a massive gorilla, even bigger than the rest, wearing a cape and fiddling with a second large computer and a tube he recognized as a teleportation pad.

"Good thing you came when you did," the Flash whispered, "Grodd'll turn me into a primate any second now. Destroy that computer!" he jerked his thumb at the consol behind him. Without wasting a second, Josh ran over to it and thrust his molten-not hands through the device. The gorilla spun around, glaring at Josh as the computer melted and the Flash's bubble burst. The speedster ran forward. "It's over, Grodd!" he yelled, barraging the ape's chest with a flurry of blows.

Josh blinked. "Wait, that's Gorilla Grodd?" The ape snarled and punched the Flash, sending the hero skidding away with his monster strength. Grodd's eyes flashed purple and Josh felt something tap him on the shoulder. He turned and gasped at the purple gorilla behind him. The ape smashed his face with its hammer-like fist. Josh stumbled into a second gorilla's chest who immediately hit him on the skull.

For a few moments, all Josh could experience was pain. Then the Flash snapped his fingers in front of his face. Josh blinked and looked around, seeing that the only gorilla in the room was Grodd, who was climbing out of a gorilla-sized hole in the wall.

"He's an illusionist," explained the Flash as Josh shook his head to clear his mind, "He likes to play mind games. Keep him on his toes and he can't focus."

Josh nodded. "Got it. Hold him off for a second, I need to do something."

"Sure." The Flash ran off to engage Grodd. Josh knelt down and undid his laces. He stood and kicked off his special, fire-proof boots. In his diaphragm, his fire smoldered excitedly. With a wild and cracking battle roar, Josh ran forward, a trail of fire igniting in his footsteps. The Flash jumped away from Gorilla Grodd just in time for Josh to run several circles around the ape, trapping him in a ring of fire. Grodd howled in pain as Josh dashed to the center of the room and turned. He dug his flaming foot into the ground and charged. Just as he reached the gorilla, Josh jumped, his legs carrying him through the fire. His fist, tinged with sparks, slammed down on the top of Gorilla Grodd's head. The ape groaned and fell over. Josh quickly used the vortex technique Flash had taught him to smother the flames before the gorilla's fur could catch fire.

"I hate the smell of burning hair," he muttered.

Flash folded his arms and walked up next to him. "Really? If you're going to use one liners, than make them good. Heck, even 'lights out' or 'someone's been a bad, bad gorilla' would've worked here.

Josh took a deep breath. It was an important decision, but he knew in his heart that he had made up his mind the second he had walked in the warehouse. "Well, maybe you could help me with the whole one-liners thing."

Flash frowned. "Why would you need to learn-" his eyes widened, "Oh! Wow, are you serious?"

Josh shuddered. "I don't think I've ever been so serious in my life." Flash held out his hand and Josh took it and shook briefly.

"Well then," Flash said, "I guess we should start from the beginning. Let's get Grodd to the holding cells on the Watchtower first, though."

Josh looked down on the unconscious gorilla. "How do you plan to do that? I could probably lift him with my fire, but I'd probably burn him in half in the process."

Flash laughed. "Ha! No, that won't be necessary. Luckily, Grodd was in the process of bringing in some of his troops from Gorilla City."

Josh stared at him with wide eyes. "From _where_?"

"Never mind, just help me get him on the teleporter pad." Josh knelt down and helped Flash drag the massive mammal across the floor over to the pad. Flash dashed over to the computer Grodd had been tinkering with and plugged in a few coordinates and numbers. He dashed over to the teleportation pad just as a bright light engulfed the three of them.

When the light cleared, Josh found himself in the massive main chambers of the Watchtower. It was different now than it was before, more organized and less panicked. Heroes of all ages, sizes, and colors were racing, joking, talking, and socializing. Some flew, showing off their long capes. Some climbed up straight walls with no handholds just to prove they could. Fire, ice, rocks, wind, plants; all of them and more spurted up occasionally as the new heroes showed off.

"Welcome back," said Flash, "Now, let's get this ole feller to holding and I'll help you put something together."

. . .

Ariel slowly opened her eyes to a bright light. She winced and rolled away. She realized she was lying on an unimaginably comfortable bed. She slowly sat up and took in her surroundings. She was in a white room with a spotless curtain pulled around her bed. The curtain pulled back and Power Girl smiled over at her. "Hey kid!"

Ariel rubbed her eyes. "Where am I?"

"Watchtower Med Bay," said Power Girl, "You fainted during our little tussle with Parasite so I brought you here. Took the liberty of doing an X-ray while you were out." Power Girl pulled up a plastic chair and sat down next to the bed. "Turns out your Exobytes weren't lined up with your DNA properly, making it hard to control your powers and giving you massive headaches when you use them too much."

Ariel rubbed her head. "Um, okay…is there any way to fix that?"

"We have people working on a treatment as we speak. You're not the only one with this problem. Until we have something for you though, you should take it easy with the powers." Power Girl stood up, "Get some rest. I need to go report to Superman." She started to leave, but paused and turned back. "By the way, kid," she said, "That was some impressive stuff back there. I talked to the doctors and they said that you shouldn't have been able to pull that spike trick even with normal Exobytes." She smiled, "You might be something special, kid. Thanks for the save." She hesitated, "Huh, not often I'm on the other end of that." She shrugged and closed the curtain behind her.

"Forgive her," said a voice. Ariel turned sharply and gasped as she stared at Raven, leaning against the wall and checking her purple-polished nails. "She's not usually this talkative."

Ariel clutched her blanket tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not here."

"Oh," Ariel relaxed, but only slightly, "Another mental projection. Is this a side effect of my messed up Exobytes?"

Raven shrugged. "Beats me. Ask me about the third circle of Hell and I can describe it in graphic detail, but ask me about the basics of physics or biology and I fold like a bad poker player."

Ariel groaned and rubbed her wrists. It was then that she noticed that her sleeves were missing. "Oh God!" She gasped, scrambling against the headboard of the bed, "My sleeves! What happened to my sleeves?"

"They needed to take a blood sample," said Raven, "Can't take a sample without a vein and they can't find a vein without a clear arm."

Ariel was hyperventilating. "They saw my scars," she whispered in horror, "Oh God, they saw my scars!"

"And they didn't care."

Ariel stared at Raven. "What?"

Raven rolled her eyes, "We're superheroes, Ariel. We fight, sometimes really violently. We've seen worse wounds then suicide attempts."

Ariel was completely unsure of how to react. She felt like her pain and depression was being demeaned. On the other hand, Raven had a good point; these people had probably seen victims who were little more than living corpses. She sighed. "So what now?"

Raven shrugged. "I guess that's up to you."

Ariel rubbed her temples. "I'm not the best a decision making."

"You don't have to be. You just have to ask yourself if you want to help people or not."

Ariel groaned. "Did I just become a superhero?"

Raven grinned, her sparkling white teeth and pale skin a complete contrast to her dark purple dress. "Yup."

. . .

Lex Luthor stared at the screen before him. The Joker's pasty white face and yellow grin sneered back at him.

"Oh, please Lexy," pleaded the Joker, "Just for tonight! The Boy Blunder and the GCPD are hassling my girl Harley again down at Amusement Mile and I'm too busy to deal with them!"

Lex sighed and steepled his fingers. "I told you, Joker; the boy's mental conditioning isn't complete. If we send him into the field now, I might reverse the entire process."

"Look, Lex you old fox, I'm a business man, you're a business man. I'm sure we can work something out."

Lex almost laughed. "Joker, you're a psychotic mass-murderer with no sense of emotion or regret…on second thought, you are the epitome of business men. But what do you have that I could possibly want in return for Devon's services?"

Joker cackled madly. "I have a private supply of Exobytes just lying around. Didn't you say you needed some spare Exobytes for research?"

"Hmm, so I did," Lex said, "Very well, I want 300,000 Exobytes delivered by unmarked trucks to the Lexcorp building. I'll send over Devon right away." Lex pressed a button and terminated the connection. He pressed another and a tall woman with black, braided hair. "Mercy, get me Project Songbird."

. . .

Please review!

_**PLEASE REVIEW!**_


	7. Outfits

Same disclaimers as before. Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 7: Outfits

"What do you think?"

"It's riding up my butt." Josh stood on a pedestal in a changing room tucked within the Watchtower's Meta Wing. The Flash was rubbing his chin, looking up at his new trainee. Josh was wearing an all-red wrestler's unitard with thick gloves and his fire-proof boots. His head was covered by a massive, tinted visor that stretched from his hairline to his neck. "Can I get something a little baggier? With a little more protection?"

"You sure? You look pretty badass." Josh glared at the Flash who was grinning like an idiot. Josh sighed and struggled to get of his helmet. With a solid yank, he pulled it off, several hairs coming painfully with it.

"I can't move my neck with this thing," he complained.

Flash laughed aloud. "Fine," he conceded, "Let's try a Fourth World style set." He pressed a few buttons on the consol in front of him and a folded outfit fell down a chute coming out of the wall. Flash left and Josh changed quickly. "What do you think?" called Flash from beyond the door. Josh walked out in the full set. He was partially covered by flexible but sturdy dark blue armor. He did a little shadow boxing and threw a few kicks to test out his mobility.

"It feels good. How does it look?"

"Like an amateur," said Flash dryly, "Seriously? No spiked shoulders or fistigons?"

Josh shrugged. "They weigh me down. Besides, your outfit is fairly conservative. Why should I be any flashier?"

"I need to be streamlined," explained Flash, "I can't just toss fire at my opponents."

"So you're saying my fire powers are more important than my super speed?"

Flash shrugged. "All I'm saying is that I'm a trained fighter who's been taught to make the most of my powers, and you're still a rookie who relies on fire and fists. Until you get a better handle on your powers, you want something that gives you maximum protection and utilizes you fire the best."

Josh thought a minute. "And you think this won't do that?"

Flash grunted. "It's fine, just a little plain for my tastes."

"Well I still need something to cover my face."

"Good point. Mask or helmet?"

Josh rubbed his sore neck. "Mask please." Flash played with the consol a bit and a domino mask fell down the chute. "Its got special lenses," he said as he handed it to Josh, "Batman came up with them. Night vision, limited x-ray vision, telescopic, infrared, and scanner."

Josh examined it for a moment before pressing it to his face. It had a soft adhesive that kept it in place. For a moment, he saw nothing, but then the lenses flashed and he blinked as a heads-up display activated, revealing the world around him. "Cool," he whispered.

Flash grinned and handed him a small earpiece. "Here's your controller. It doubles as a communicator."

Josh pushed it snuggly into his ear. "Infrared," he said experimentally. Immediately, his vision shuttered and became various shades of purple, with a large red and orange blot where Flash stood. "Um, regular," said Josh. His vision returned to normal.

"So, you ready for the grand tour?"

"I think so. This whole thing is still pretty overwhelming."

Flash wrapped his arm around Josh and led him out of the changing rooms. "Don't worry; I'll try not to blow your mind too much."

. . .

Ariel looked at herself in the mirror. She was in her underwear, the outfit she was supposed to put on strewn about her on the carpeted floor. Her eyes traveled up her body, following the maze of scars that latticed her skin from her feet to her arms. She rubbed her wrists and sighed. Her hallucination of Raven had told her that superheroes had seen worse than her scars, but she wondered if they knew where the came from. Not all of them were from stress relieving or suicide attempts.

There was a banging on the door. "Everything okay in there, kid? You've been changing for, like, ten minutes." Ariel cringed. She hadn't the courage to confront Raven in person, so she had asked Power Girl for help picking a costume. But she didn't want the hero in the changing room with her; there would be too much explaining to do.

"Y-yeah," Ariel stuttered, "I'll be right out." She quickly slid into the costume Power Girl had picked out for her. It was pink, something she knew she would immediately change, and was comprised of heavy chain mail tunic with a silk undershirt and a silk spike going up the middle. Beneath her leather belt was a light skirt and Kevlar-reinforced leggings. She quickly made sure everything was on right and walked out of the changing room.

Power Girl was waiting for her. She gave a low whistle. "Looks good on you. How does it feel?"

Ariel rolled her shoulders uncomfortably. "The shirt is a little heavy."

"Yeah?" Power Girl grinned, "Try flying." Ariel slowly lifted a few feet of the ground and her eyes widened in amazement as her tunic suddenly felt lighter than air. "Your flying is actually a field of gravity desensitization," explained Power Girl as Ariel dropped back down, "You fly, everything touching you flies with you. Besides," she continued, "Your powers aren't physical, so you need to build up some muscle. Heavy clothes are neat little tricks to do that."

"Okay," said Ariel, "Do I need a mask?"

Power Girl's excited grin shrank to a soft, happy smile. "Actually, I have a few gifts for you." She reached behind her and pulled out a plastic bag. From its depths, she took a black, hooded robe. "Raven wanted you to have this. She had a few spare to get rid of." Ariel accepted the cloak with a gulp and swung it around herself. As soon as she closed the clasp around her neck and pulled up the hood, she felt a strange comfort flow through her. She felt like the cloak would keep her safe and hide her secrets. She sighed deeply as she felt the tension of the last week vanish in her cloak. "Hmm," grimaced Power Girl, "Clashes, but that can be fixed. You like it?"

"Yeah," said Ariel, "What is it made of? It feels like velvet, but velvet never felt this good."

"It's some kind of magic cloth," said Power Girl with a wave of her hand, "I don't know a lot about magic." Ariel turned to the mirror and saw that the hood cast a deep shadow over her face, hiding her from the world. "Here," she turned back to Power Girl. She was holding out a small, yellow, cross-shaped chip.

Ariel took the chip and examined it. "What is it?"

"The scientists are calling them Exobits," said Power Girl, "They're broken down from Exobytes. We're still not entirely sure what they do, but our studies have shown that they stabilize the Exobytes that are already in your system."

Ariel stared at it. "So what do I do, eat it?"

Power Girl grimaced. "Just pretend it's an Advil and it'll go down easier." Ariel sighed and took a deep breath. She put the cold metal in her mouth and swallowed. It scraped her throat slightly on the way down and she gagged, but it was over in less than a second.

"So that's it?" she said, whipping her mouth.

"Once a month," said Power Girl with a sympathetic smile.

Ariel sighed. "Can I get this in black?" she asked, motioning to her uniform.

"If you want. I wouldn't advise it, though."

"Why not?"

"This isn't cotton, girl, it doesn't breathe. I'd get something lighter, grey or blue maybe."

Ariel looked at herself in the mirror and pictured herself in a white outfit with the deep blue robe. She gave a soft smile and turned to Power Girl. "Thanks for your help, Power Girl."

"No problem, always an honor to help initiate a new hero," she paused, "That being said, you should talk to someone else about mentoring you."

Ariel looked at the ground. "I know."

"You really should talk to Raven," said Power Girl, "I don't know what beef you have with her, but your powers aren't something to take lightly. You need to learn to control them properly and Raven's the best person to help you."

Ariel didn't lift her head as Power Girl rested a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't tell her. She couldn't tell anybody.

. . .

Hundreds of feet above Gotham City, a black plane flew silently just above the clouds. When it reached a certain spot, a tall man in a black ski mask opened the door. Wind rushed by and Devon gulped as he peered out. He turned to the masked man. "I'm scared!" The man gave him a smile that could have been reassuring or sadistic; it was hard to tell with the ski mask. The man gently pushed Devon forwards towards the door.

Devon was wearing a black and green padded jumpsuit. He had a short cape that could expand into gliding wings. His arms and legs were covered by thick gauntlets and boots with little buttons on them. Lew had told him not to touch any of them until he was told to. His head was covered by a thick helmet and the top half of his face was protected by a visor. On his left breastplate, a small white bird was painted.

"Go on," whispered the man in his ear, "Just like you've been trained." Devon gulped. For the last week, Lex had been teaching him to use his powers in the white rooms. He had taught Devon how the police and super heroes were controlled by bad people who wanted to rule the world. Lex and his friends were trying to stop them, and Devon could help them.

Devon closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He was going to save the world. With a half-scared, half-courageous battle roar, Devon took a flying leap out of the plane. For a few moments, the wind blew past him as he hurdled towards the earth. It would have stung his eyes if not for his mask. After a few seconds, Devon reached behind him and grabbed his cape. Immediately, the cape stretched out to form a glider and his descent slowed down with a jerk. Devon gulped. It was just like the simulations, he told himself. Gently, he began to drift down towards his target area, Amusement Mile. His father had taken him to the park a few times, but a night, it was much scarier. The bad policemen were fighting with the nice clowns. Devon folded his cape and dropped, landing in a crouch on the top of the cloth tent in the center of the park. Around him, police cars and barrels were scattered, cover for the GCPD and clowns engaged in firefights.

His visor lit up in a heads up display and Devon blinked in surprise, this hadn't been part of the simulation exercises. In the top left corner appeared an image of a grinning clown. "Hello!" he greeted Devon enthusiastically, "You must be the little helper ole' Lex sent over! I'm your good old Uncle J! You ready to have some fun, little songbird?" Devon nodded slowly, unsure if the nice clown could see him. "Alrighty then!" said the clown, "If you look around, you should see some green barrels leaking some gas. See them?" Devon turned his head and saw a few of the barrels in question. "Take those barrels and put them next to the tent's vent system. That'll flush out the little piggies in my hideout! Oh, and be careful not to breathe in the gas, very toxic you know." The image disappeared. Devon slid off the tent and landed with a grunt on the ground. He slowly crept forward, making sure that there weren't any police around. Taking a deep breath, he ran forward and grabbed one of the barrels. He grunted as he lifted it over his head. It must have weighed more than anything in the world! He staggered forwards, making sure to keep his mouth shut, and tossed it towards the fans sticking out of the tent.

The image of the clown reappeared in his visor. "Good job, kiddo!" exclaimed the clown, "Now, the Boy Blunder has the formula for my Joker Gas in my hideout. I need you to get in there and take it back! Oh, and save my _beloved_ Harley too, of course." The clown rolled his eyes. "There's a box of gas masks near the roller coaster, get over there and pick one up and I'll give you the password to get into my clubhouse!"

"Do you have candy?" asked Devon nervously.

"What's that laddie?"

"The last time my daddy brought me here, the clowns gave out candy."

The clown's grin grew wider. "Oh, we have candy coming out of our ears! Tell you what, you take care of Bird Boy and I'll send Lex a whole bag of goodies to give to you!" Devon grinned and looked around for the roller coaster.

He ran forward, dodging behind cover. But he just wasn't fast enough. "Hey!" shouted a police officer, "There's one over here!" A gunshot went over Devon's head and he panicked. He screamed, his throat vibrating harshly as the policeman was sent flying.

"It's a super villain!"

"Bring him down!" More gunshots slammed into the pavement around Devon as he took a running slide behind a flaming police car. He glanced over his cover and gulped as he saw a line of policemen between him and the massive roller coaster. He took a deep breath and vaulted over the car. Bullets whizzed around him, but they weren't as fast as his voice. His scream shattered the windows of the car behind him and rattled the steel and wood bars of the roller coaster. With screams of terror, the policemen were tossed like rag dolls through the air. Before his sonic blast was even through, Devon ran forward into a break in their ranks. He grabbed the legs of the coaster and quickly scrambled up as Lex had taught him to do. He flipped onto the tracks and slid down the steep climb.

At the bottom of the climb, a clown was holding a cop by the lapel as he beat down on him. "Thanks kid!" said the clown in a shrill voice, "You're a big help!"

"You're welcome!" laughed Devon.

The police officer looked over with two black eyes. "What? A kid?" The clown shut him up by continuing his assault. Devon looked away and his eyes fell on a wooden crate in the loading station of the coaster. He dashed over and lifted the heavy cover. Inside were dozens of black, adjustable gas masks. Devon grabbed one and put it too his face. The clown dropped the police officer and walked over to help him put it on.

When the mask was secured over his mouth and nose, the clown rubbed his pasty white chin thoughtfully. "With your mouth covered like that, your powers won't work," he pointed out. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a black tube. With a flick of his wrist, the tube extended into a baton. The clown handed it to Devon. "Here, take this."

Devon nodded. "Thanks!"

"Now go save Harley, kid! We'll keep the coppers out of your way!" Devon saluted and ran down the ramp of the ride, his baton at the ready.

. . .

In another part of Gotham, a figure in white darted across the Gotham General Hospital rooftop. The figure leapt off the roof and shot a cable to the next rooftop, drawing himself up in the process. From his baggy sleeve flashed a small metal box with a red button on it. The figure landed on the rooftop with a grunt and stood up. He walked calmly away, pushing the red button without turning back. Behind him, the hospital erupted into flames. He ignored the screams of terror and pain as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Finally, when he was a good ten or twelve blocks away, he turned back to observe his art. "Beautiful," he said to himself with a smile as the sounds of chaos filled the air, "Absolutely beautiful." In the distance, the letters A-N-A-R-K-Y burned against the hospital. "Beautiful anarchy."

. . .

Please review!


	8. Names

Same disclaimers as before

Chapter 8: Names

Josh gulped as he stared around the massive Meta Wing. He shook violently as two cackling teenagers in bright, flashy costumes flew past him as they raced to the ceiling.

Flash had abandoned him at the large molecule hologram when an emergency had sprung up requiring his attention, leaving Josh without a guide. That was almost ten minutes ago. Since then, heroes young and older than him had filled past on their way into the hall of Meta-based heroes. Voices filled the air as they discussed their triumphs and joked and told stories. Josh remained silent. He had never been very good at making friends; his severe anxiety had kept him from much social interaction. His medication helped, but only enough for him to really function in a professional environment. The Watchtower, while formal in some areas, was the opposite of formal.

After almost a half-hour, he simply couldn't take it. Flash had pointed out a bathroom at the base of the ramp and Josh turned to get himself into a nice, tight stall. Unfortunately, he turned and bumped straight into someone. "Oh! Sorry!" he said nervously and a bit too loudly. The figure he knocked flipped it's hair away and Josh's jaw hit the floor.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." Said the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. She was tall and slender, coated with a brilliant, silver shine. Her costume must be sealed to her because Josh couldn't see where it her skin stopped and her outfit began. She wore no mask, but her smiling eyes glowed white. She had silver earrings and her belt, the only part of her uniform that seemed to be separate from her body, was blindingly bright. She smiled warmly at Josh and walked by him. He slowly turned his head to follow her figure until it disappeared into the crowd.

For a moment, he simply stood still, unsure if he had truly seen the angelic vision. With a rush of adrenaline, he burst into a run. He ran up the wall, an almost instinctive act at this point, and jumped from the wall to a metal rafter near the roof. He crouched down and scanned the crowd, trying to find the brilliant silver sheen of her skin. A flash of light caught his eye and he glanced up just in time for him to see her walk out of the hall into the corridor leading to the Aquacultural Area.

Without thinking, Josh jumped from the rafter. He had just left the safe and sturdy perch when he realized, quite suddenly, that it was a good three or four story drop to the hall floor and he, unfortunately, could not fly. Josh gasped and scrunched his eyes tightly.

"Hey," Josh's eyes snapped open. He was floating gently towards the ground, towards a woman in a cloak with her hand outstretched towards him. Slowly, his feet fell to the ground and he stared at the hooded woman. She stared back at him, her eyes poking out from the darkness of her hood. "Um," she said hesitantly, "It's not that bad. You have so much to live for, and stuff."

If it were possible, Josh's eyes widened further. "Oh! No!" he said, waving his hands in protest, "I wasn't! No! I just was up there and, ah, I, um, forgot myself."

"Oh," said the woman. She was much younger than Josh had first realized, probably no more than sixteen. In fact, there was something familiar about that soft drawl.

Josh tilted his head to try and see under her hood. "Ariel?"

The girl blinked. "Do I know you?"

"It's me, Josh. We escaped from the Brainiac ship together."

"Yeah, I remember you. So you're a hero too now, huh?"

Josh tried to look over Ariel to try and spot the silver woman. "Uh, yep."

"Cool. What're you looking for?"

"Ah, a woman."

"Right. Don't let me keep you." She stood aside and Josh speed off into the crowd towards where he had last seen the woman. He ran through the corridor he saw her go down and skidded to halt in the Aquacultural Area. He looked around and ran onto the raised park. After a second, he saw her shining head. She was lying under a tree, playing with some of the low hanging leaves. Josh ducked behind the nearest tree and peered out at his goddess.

Every second he stared at her, she seemed to become more lovely and elegant. A single leaf drifted down and fell on her nose, causing her to giggle. It was like a jingle bell at Christmas. Josh smiled as he watched her. At least until he realized how creepy he must look to a third-party viewer. He quickly pulled his head back and adopted the fetal position, still trying to hear the sound of her laugh. After a moment, he peeked out around the tree once more.

She was gone. Josh sighed and slapped his forehead in regret. "Looking for someone?" Josh spun around and pressed himself against the tree as he faced the silver woman. His breath became quick and nervous as she narrowed her emissive eyes. "Who are you? What do you want?" Unlike before, her voice was cold and hard. Yet still it was melodic and beautiful, like a masterfully forced sword.

"I-I just-" started Josh. Faster than his eyes could follow, the woman's right arm shot out, extending to wrap around his neck.

"Tell the truth," she hissed. Josh thought fast and talked faster.

"My name is Josh. I'm new here. I lost my guide. I thought maybe you could show me around." He said as quickly as he could.

The woman blinked and retracted her hand. "Sorry," she said sheepishly as she

rubbed her wrist, "But with the whole Brainiac thing…well, we can't be too careful."

"Right, it's cool," said Josh, his blood pumping and hands shaking.

"Well the least I can do after all that is to show you around. C'mon! I'll tell you the secrets of the Tech Wing." She turned and sauntered off, Josh following behind her like a hound dog. "I'm Platinum, by the way."

"Josh," he said, his eyes not leaving her luxurious silver hair.

"You know, you really should make a codename for yourself. I mean, your secret identity is really only for those close to you."

"Then it's a good thing you know it," said Josh softly.

"What?"

"I said is, um, Arsonist a good one?"

Platinum smiled. "I like it. A little bad-boy, but it fits."

. . .

Ariel walked into the Magic Wing with her eyes closed. Her powers and past experiences allowed her to sense the enormity of the magical presence in the hall. She opened her eyes and gazed in wonder at the pillar of pure magic that erupted in the middle of the hall. But she wasn't here to wonder at the magical majesty.

She walked slowly up the ramp as magical heroes and members of the Sentinels of Magic walked or flew by. Each time one of the blue-garbed Sentinels passed her, she cringed as she remembered her previous encounters with them.

She reached the top of the ramp and turned towards the stairs. Her heart, soul, and brain all screamed at her to turn and run. There was no way she could face Raven in real life. Her mental projections were hard enough. But still, her legs pushed her forwards, powered only by an inner force that desired peace and clarity, even if Ariel herself could not admit it.

She reached the tall room at the top of the stairs where she had visited on her first trip to Watchtower. This time, it was almost vacant. The meditating group was gone, only Raven on a purple pillow with a few candles remained. The heroine was facing away, looking out into the depths of space.

Ariel took a deep breath and was about to speak. "Come," it was a simple command, but its abruptness and force made Ariel start and literally choke on her own words. She cleared her throat and stepped forwards until she was standing behind Raven.

"Hi," said Ariel after a pause.

"Hello."

"So…I'm here."

"I gathered as much. Unlike you, I do not have mental hallucinations before my confrontations."

Ariel blinked in confusion before falling to the floor with a groan. "You were in my head the whole time. It was never a projection."

Raven turned slightly and Ariel saw a very small smile. "You are gullible, Ariel, not crazy."

"There are those who would disagree." Ariel rubbed her temples as Raven turned back to the window.

"You needed a little push, but were unwilling to speak with me. I apologize for invading your privacy."

Ariel sighed. "In comparison to what I did to you? I kinda deserved it."

Raven grunted. "You were young, a child. You made a mistake."

"Other kids didn't make my mistakes."

"You were brainwashed. It wasn't your fault."

"I was weak." Raven was silent. Ariel rolled over onto her side and wrapped her knees to her chest. "Thanks for the cloak, by the way."

"Of course." They sat in awkward silence, both of them truly trying to find the right words to say. Only a few years ago, they would have both tried to kill each other.

"I know this might be a sensitive subject," said Raven softly, "But do you still have the tattoo?"

Ariel winced and rubbed her shoulder, remembering the incessant needle and the pain as ink pierced her skin. "No. I got it lasered after I got out of rehab. I didn't need to be reminded of what I did every time I got out of the shower." After a pause, she asked, "So where do we go from here?"

Raven sighed and stood up, the candles flaring brightly as she stretched her muscles. "Obviously you are not entirely comfortable around me. I can well understand. But you should still know that I have forgiven you entirely for what you did."

Suddenly, Ariel felt like crying. She stood angrily and glared at Raven. "Why? Why can you forgive me so easily?" she demanded.

"I have been trained since youth to restrict my emotions," said Raven, not breaking her gaze into Ariel's eyes, "It takes a lot to make me hold a grudge." Ariel wanted to punch something. Better yet, she wanted to be punched.

"It doesn't matter if you forgive me," she whispered, "It doesn't change what I did." She swiveled and ran towards the stairs.

"Charmer." Ariel turned back as she reached the stairs.

"What?"

"I heard through the grapevine that you hadn't given yourself a codename yet," Raven returned to her cross-legged pose on her pillow, "Charmer might be a good one to try on." Ariel scowled and ran from the room.

. . .

Devon ran up to the door of the funhouse tent. He tried to open it, but it was locked. Annoyed, he banged on it. A small viewer opened up above him and two yellow eyes peered out at him. "Password?"

The image of the clown appeared in the corner of Devon's visor again. "Batman stinks!" he cackled. The viewer closed and the door swung outwards violently, the opposite of what a door was supposed to do.

"Sorry, boss," said the fat man in makeup who stood guard as Devon walked in. Inside the tent was chaos. Police and clowns were clashing everywhere, gunshots and laughs flying around the room. A scratchy carnival tune played over the loudspeaker and green gas drifted in small clouds through the air. For a moment, Devon just stared at the insanity unfolding before him.

He looked up at the fat, door clown. "Why aren't they hurting you?" he asked through the gas mask.

The clown shrugged. "Sometimes the cops are crazier than we are!"

"How did they get in? Did they know the password?"

"No, Boy Blunder led them in through the back."

"Oh," Devon looked back at the chaos and looked around for something to use to his advantage, just like he'd been trained. After a moment, he found what he's been looking for; a support pole that led to the ceiling. With expert skills imbued after a week of intense mental simulations and physical training, Devon clambered up the pole like a monkey. At the top he climbed into a hanging net and scrambled over the fighting below. A stray bullet whizzed past him and he shrieked in surprise, but he continued to climb. At the end of the net, he jumped down and used his cape to glide over the combatants and landed with a grunt at the flap to the next room. He quickly ducked in and stared in wonder.

The room was filled with giant bouncing balls and the walls were lined with enormous, wrapped presents. There was still fighting, but it was clear that the clowns were winning. Several cops were struggling, mummified in wrapping paper as their friends fought against swarms of the Joker's henchmen each. Devon felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned.

"Over there!" said a clown. He pointed to the far wall where a massive Joker face protruded. It's open, wide grin led into some kind of laundry chute. "Harley's down there clubbin'," he giggled, "With a giant hammer!"

Devon blinked. "I don't get it."

"It's a joke for grown-ups, kid. Just go help Harley! We'll finish up here." Devon nodded and ran forwards, flipping over a police officer as he did. He duck and wove through the various fights, flailing his baton to help the funny men when he could. After a few seconds, he reached the chute and jumped down it.

He landed in a large, underground warehouse. There were a few cops and clowns, but they were fighting in pairs across the room. Devon looked around for Robin, assuming he'd find him fighting this Harley woman.

Something slammed into him and he skid across the floor, falling over. Next to him, he heard a low groan. Devon pushed himself up at the same time as a teenage boy in a red and yellow jumpsuit with a black cape and an identical gas mask to Devon's . "Who taught her how to use that thing?" muttered the teen as he rubbed his head. He glanced over at Devon. "Are you the backup Batman sent?"

Devon stared at the strangely dressed boy. "Are you Robin?"

The teen kicked up his fallen bo staff and twirled it expertly. "That's my name, don't wear it out. Now, I need you too-" Devon flicked out his baton and smashed it behind his knee. Robin cried out in surprise and pain and dropped to one knee. Before he could react, a massive wooden hammer flew out of nowhere and slammed into the side of his head. The force of the blow sent the boy wonder flying and he smashed into the far wall with a grunt.

"Fore!" came a high pitched cry, "Well wouldja' look at that! My hammer moves faster than the speed of sound!" A tall woman with a white face, a red and black unitard, and a split hat cart-wheeled over to Devon. She leaned down and grinned, her bright smile taking up most of his vision. "Well aren't you just the cutest little rugrat! And I bet ya got some nifty powers to show off, don'tcha?"

Devon smiled. The clown in his visor had made him a little scared, even if he was giving Devon candy. But this lady just seemed nice. "I'm Devon. What's your name?"

"Little old me? Why I'm Harley Quinn!" she took a theatrical bow and picked up her hammer. As she stood up, she swung it onto her shoulder, hitting a cop in the rear in the process.

"That's a pretty name."

Harley covered her face with her hammer and blushed comically. "Oh, well aren't you just a gentleman! But Devon is a kid's name. How about I give you a grown up name? Let's see…" she pursed her lips and stared at Devon.

"Mr. Lex calls me his Songbird. Is that a good name?"

Harley clapped her hands and squealed. "That's a great name! Nice and cute, just like my little gentleman! You know, a real gentleman would keep a lady safe from certain birdies that want to hurt them."

Devon stared at her in confusion for a second, but then smiled. "Like Robin, right?"

Harley patted him affectionately on the head. "And smart too! I gotta ask Mr. J if we can keep you!"

"Hey, don't you need a gas mask? Here, you can have mine." Devon started to take his off, but Harley quickly grabbed his wrist.

"Hold your horses, bucko!" she said, "I'm immune to this stuff! You take just one whiff of Mr. J's new stuff and you'll have to have a closed casket." Just then, a swirling bolo wrapped itself around Harley and she scrunched up with a slight 'eep'. Her hammer was trapped to her arm and her arms were trapped to her sides. Off balance, she fell on her side with a groan. Devon spun and glared at Robin. The boy wonder was panting slightly, his arm still outstretched from his bolo throw.

He twirled his staff behind his back. "You wanna go, kid?" he growled, "Let's go." With a roar of rage, he charged forward. Devon spun his baton and knocked away Robin's first blow. Robin smirked and flipped his staff, slamming the butt of his staff on Devon's head. His helmet protected him, but he still staggered back as stars blinked in front of his eyes. His vision cleared in time to see Robin's boot smash into his visor. Devon fell back and gasped as his gas mask snapped off. Devon's eyes widened and he quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.

Robin grinned. "What? Don't like the stuff you're protecting?" Devon shook his head vehemently. "Probably shouldn't have side with the bad guys then." Robin jabbed forward faster than the naked eye could follow and plunged it into Devon's stomach. The air was forced from his body. Devon quickly shut his mouth, trying not to breathe, but it was futile. He vainly waved his hand in front of his face to try to disperse the gas around him. To a certain degree, it worked. He only inhaled a small bit of the toxin. Unfortunately, that seemed to be enough.

Devon smiled against his will, trying to keep from laughing. But he could already feel the gas floating through his blood. It was like adrenaline mixed with something else. Was this how dad had felt when he took his funny little pills? Devon shook as he opened his mouth. "HA!" it was a burst of concentrated laughter combined with his sonic powers. Robin's cried out in surprise as he was thrown away.

The edges of Devon's vision began to darken and he giggled as he sprawled over.

"Hang on, kiddo!" said a clown leaning over him. Devon closed his eyes and lost consciousness, a high pitched squeal ringing in his ears.

. . .

Lex Luthor and Joker were sitting in a side lounge in the Hall of Doom, a set of cards between them.

"Two pair," Lex placed his cards down with a monotone.

"Ha! Four aces!" Joker cackled and scooped Lex's chips into his lap.

Lex sighed and leaned back against the cushioned couch. "That's the third time in a row you've gotten four aces, Joker."

Joker fixed his rival with a stink eye. "So?"

"So, if you're going to cheat, at least respect me enough to try to hide it."

"What do you care about a few million? You're so stinkin' rich, the entire world economy could take a huge dive if you sneeze into your morning coffee!"

Lex rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I prefer tea." There was a beeping noise and Lex sighed as he whipped out his phone. "Luthor speaking."

"Lex. Is Joker there?" the voice was very recognizable. It was cold and metallic with just a hint of an eastern European accent.

"Yes."

"Put me on speaker," said Dr. Victor Fries, more commonly known as Mr. Freeze. Lex complied and placed the phone on the table. "Joker, can you hear me?"

Joker glanced up from his loot. "Oh, it's old cold shoulder. How come you never return my calls? We could chill out together sometime!"

A rush of static was all they could hear of Freeze's sigh. "Puns like that are why you and I don't 'chill', Joker. Besides, this call is business."

"What do you want, Victor?" asked Lex dryly.

"The new player in Gotham, Anarky, he vandalized the hospital where my wife is kept. The explosions he caused damaged some of her cryo-containments and she's at risk of thawing out."

"Mmm, I see the problem," said Lex, lacing his fingers together in thought.

"I have to keep her alive. I've been developing a cure for years and I have a rough prototype. It's untested, but under the circumstances, I don't have much of a choice."

"So what did you want from us?"

"I need funds. Men, money, and the tools I need to fully commandeer the Gotham General Hospital."

Lex thought for a few moments in silence, his eyes never leaving the phone and Joker's eyes never leaving Lex. Finally, Lex cleared his throat. "Consider this a blank check."

"Thank you, Lex."

"Anything for a member of the Society," said Lex with a smirk. On the other end of the line, Freeze laughed heartily.

"Of course," he said, well aware that Lex would ask for a favor in the future, "Joker, I know you want to get this Anarky fellow just as much as I do. If you ever get a lead on him, let me know." As the line went dead, Lex tucked the phone back into his pocket and glanced up at Joker, who was whistling innocently.

"I don't suppose I can expect you to stay out of this, can I?"

Lex didn't know if he had ever seen Joker's grin so wide or so cruel. "Why Lex, whatever do you mean?"

. . .

Sorry for the delay. Please review!


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